Bots? Banned.
Harassing folks? Banned.
Playing Halo 4? A lot of folks think they’ll ban you just for that anymore.
And now being a sex offender is working its way up the list of kick-able offenses, thanks to Operation: Game Over.
U.S. Attorney General Eric T. Schneiderman out of New York state announced today that upward of 2,100 sex offenders who game online have had their accounts pulled.
This round of Operation: Game Over is supported by Gaia Online, NCSoft, FunCon, Sony and THQ. Apple, Blizzard, Disney Interactive, EA, Microsoft, and Warner Brothers Interactive already teamed with the initiative, purging more than 3,500 accounts under their umbrella.
Operation: Game Over is an offshoot of New York’s e-STOP (Electronic Securing and Targeting of Online Predators Act), which polices the online presence of convicted sex offenders. The state logs e-mail addresses, screen names, and “other Internet identifiers.”
This is a good move…for the most part. Online gaming communities do attract a lot of minors who may not be aware of the dangers that lurk. In real life, we don’t allow sex offenders near schools or anywhere else that kids may congregate. Parallel situation.
However, the guy or gal who decided “Hm, I’m gonna go pee riiiight here,” isn’t a threat to the youngins based on that alone. But public urination can land you on a sex offender list — the same list as pedophiles, rapists, and the like. So you see me under-clothed walking in front of my bedroom window. Not really a threat to anyone — just kind of dumb. Sex offender material? Maybe not. Before we start taking away people’s gaming privileges, or any liberties in general, it might be time to reexamine how we classify sex offenders.
Source: Polygon
Source: Long Island Exchange
