New York State’s “Operation Game Over”, the first of it’s kind is an online sweep has banned over 3,500 registered sex offenders from online gaming services earlier this year.
An additional 2,100 offenders were banned from online gaming platforms such as XBox Live, and the Playstation Network now that THQ, Funcom, and NCsoft have begun assisting the cause.
State’s attorney general Eric T. Scheneiderman announced the recent bannings earlier this morning. They coincide with a state law that requires sex offenders to register all email addresses, screen names and online aliases with the state. The state then turns over the information to the Operation Game Over crew who purge the convicted sex offenders from online access.
Many states have sex offender registries that require email addresses and online psuedonyms to be registered. However, New York is the only state that is currently working to remove offenders from services where they can have online contact with children. In initiative was inspired by a case where a 19 year old registered offender met a 12 year old boy over XBox live, arranged a meeting and then sexually abused him. The offender was sentenced to 6 months in jail, but is permanently banned from online gaming.
In addition to three companies mentioned above, Microsoft and Sony, publishers such as Gaia Online, Apple, Blizzard Entertainment, Electronic Arts, Disney Interactive Media Group and Warner Brothers are also working with the state to keep sex offenders offline.
Nation
Do you think that it’s a great idea to create an initiative that completely removes someone from the ability to game online?
