New York State: Sex Offenders Banned from Playing Online Games

If you're a sex offender, chances are you're not reading this and won't care what I have to say about sex offenders.

If you're not, you'll be glad to know that pedophiles and other convicted sex offenders will no longer be a part of our online communities as the New York State attorney general's office and gaming companies are working together to shut down the accounts belonging to registered sex offenders.

The New York Times reports that the New York State attorney general and companies like Microsoft, Activision-Blizzard, Disney Interactive Media Group, Sony, Electronic Arts, and Apple are working closely together to make sure the online environments we play our games in are safe from convicted sex predators, rapists and child molesters.

Dubbed Operation Game Over, the operation intends to curtail sex predators from finding their victims online—especially through videogames and MMOs.

The Times reports that together, the companies have so far closed 3,500 accounts belonging to registered sex offenders in New York alone.

You may be up in arms over the idea that kids are playing M-rated games, but that's not illegal. What is happening is that kids and teenagers getting raped, and services like World of Warcraft and XBox Live are being used to facilitate these rapes. To further the allegation that this does in fact occur, the attorney general's office noted a case where a 19-year-old pleaded guilty to raping a 10-year-old boy he met on Xbox Live. I don't care to speculate on the details, but needless to say, the online service facilitated it.

"We must ensure online video games do not become a digital playground for dangerous predators […] That means doing everything possible to block sex offenders from using gaming networks as a vehicle to prey on underage victims," said attorney general Eric T. Schneiderman.

Online gaming will be all the better for it.