Video Games are the New Frontier for Sexual Predators
Playgrounds, have moved into our living rooms of our homes, are you locking the Virtual DeadBolts before your children play…
FBI officials are investigating a number of cases in which sexual predators have used online gaming systems including Wii, PlayStation and Xbox to find victims. According to FBI forensic examiner Douglas Roden, online gaming communities are the “new hunting ground” where predators prey upon children.
“Where kids play, the predators are going to prey. All the latest technologies and all the latest games are going to draw the predators and the kids to the same places.”
Chad Gallagher, FBI Child Exploitation Squad, pictured with Holly Hawkins of AOL and EIE President Donna Rice Hughes…
Late last year, the FBI arrested a 30-year old Dayton, Ohio, woman who allegedly used an Xbox 360 to send naked pictures of herself to a 16-year old in Arizona. Police said she then was able to persuade the teen to send her naked pictures of him. (”Video Games New Frontier for Sexual Predators.” WAPT.com News (ABC). 1 May 2008.
Parents may not realize that gaming consoles operate in much the same way as a computer or that savvy kids can bypass parental controls. As Marc Rogers, director of Purdue University’s Cyber Forensic Lab said, “Police who have been doing stings in Internet chat rooms for years now are going undercover to catch predators playing interactive games ranging from Grand Theft Auto to old fashioned chess and checkers”.
Earlier this year, a man in Utah was charged with sexual exploitation of a minor for enticing a 12-year old boy he met through an online game into having sex.
In December, Michigan prosecutors convicted Adam Glenn Schroeder of criminal sexual conduct with a minor and using a computer to commit a crime. He used World of Warcraft to lure a 12-year-old girl into having sex with him. He was sentenced to 10 years in prison.
In another case, a 10 year old boy playing the Halo Xbox game got a video message from a man that showed adults engaged in a sex act. (Koch, Wendy. “Predators use gaming consoles to ‘get foot in the door.’” USA Today. 2 July 2008.
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