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Accused Molester Hunted On Xbox Live
GamePolitics has the unfortunate task of reporting that an accused child molester evidently found his victim via Xbox Live. From the piece: "Watts made contact with the boy on Xbox Live in October or November. Their contacts ultimately included e-mails and pornographic videos sent by Watts. The boy eventually gave the suspect his contact information, leading to a meeting in a Santa Rosa park where the alleged molestation took place. After learning of the complaint, investigators searched Watts' home, seizing his Xbox and a laptop PC, along with a variety of cameras. Watts is currently free on bail."
Well, at least, it's not the fault of the Internet...
Someone should figure out his gamertag and post it here, so that if the bastard is allowed to play xbox live while waiting for his court date, kids can steer clear, and everyone else can gang up on the guy and keep rockets firing at his head 24x7.
..Jeff Keegan
seven syllables explain TiVo: kee gan dot org slash ti vo
Jack Thompson when you need him? Can a new crusade be far off?
.. has the guy's Live account been cancelled? If not, that'd be a story in itself.
This is certainly a rallying cry for Mr. Thompson to crusade against digital photography and parks in Santa Rosa.
...This is a very good example of why I find the Nintendo WFC to be very well designed in terms of child safety. There are no WFC chat programs (currently) available, and the only way to seek a friend through Mario Kart or Animal Crossing is to already have their ID# (and vice-versa). I specifically stated possible sexual predators seeking out children to my friend when he was complaining of the lack of free chat and messaging services.
But nor do I blame XBox live. Ultimately the fault and blame is on the assailant. I simply think Nintendo was wise to structure such a limited network, especially with games targeted at younger audiences.
Those who believe the Internet is private,
find their privates are on the Internet.
I think Nintendo has the right idea of not allowing open chat on the DS Wi-Fi. The worse someone can do is repeatitily slam thier kart into someone. I think chat is more annoying in a lot of games than helpful. BF2 has the canned voice chat thing down that voice isn't really needed. Counterstrike seems to have less annoying kids on it these days but for a while Counterstrike really sucked because of screamers. (Thank you X-box live). Even playinng PS2 Madden online can suck sometimes because I have to wait 30 seconds for some tool to accuse me of cheating? (No, I am not cheating, there are no cheats, you just suck.) I can see you need it on MMORPG but I don't play those. Get rid of all chat/voice in games and I won't miss it one bit.
Just like in the rat-hat from Seinfeld, this just isn't good for anybody
Then again this kid doesn't sound like he is a major loss to the gene pool. Meeting a total stranger in a park after exchanging porn. Oh yeah. That is something nobody has ever warned kids about.
I suppose I should feel sorry to sound nice but frankly I hate stupid people. Perhaps it is harder then when I was a kid but geez, has never ever had a talk with this kid before? Do not accept candy from strangers? Oh well, cue new laws designed to dumb down the world because of one pervert and a dumb kid.
MMO Quests are like orgasms:
You may solo them, I prefer them in a group.
I read this as "Mole-ster", when I first saw the headline. I laughed. Like 'Napster'. I thought it was some kind of hack for Xbox Live, or whatever. Then I read the blurb and got sad.
I can't believe people are now resorting to the Xbox live online community for their sexual deviancy, like they didn't have enough innocent kids to prey on with the Internet itself. Creepy B******. I hope they nail that perv to the wall.
Games are supposed to be FUN. You shouldn't have to worry about someone stalking your kids while they play their game console, in the saftey of your own home.
VOTE!
But what game did they meet on? My guess is Spongebob Squarepants! These games are not safe for kids!
Regardless of the fact that the teen was lured to a park by a dirty old man, you have to recognize that the teen went after receiving pornographic materials from the D.O.M. So, while he legally could not consent to anything, as a matter of reality, he had some idea of what he was getting into.
/. human-check word I have to type in for this message is "convicts."
We don't know the nature of the porn, but it seems quite possible that it was of the D.O.M. Is it possible that the teen was curious, went, decided he didn't like the encounter, and turned the D.O.M. in?
I'm not trying to defend the D.O.M. in any way, I just am thinking that the teen wasn't an absolutely innocent victim.
note: ironically, the
Let me take a wild guess: the media will make a huge unproportioned campaign about the lurking horrors of xbox live, warning that each kid playing is in danger of being a victim of some psycho completely disregarding the fact that a caught red handed child molester got a "get out of jail" card and is happily lurking around as we speak?
Who the fuck cares if it was on live or messenger or whatever? the guy walked!
Im seeing it right now Jack Thompson and "My husband cheated on me while being president" Clinton bragging about the danger of videogames, calling for banning of xbox live (maybe wifi nintendo) "due to the dangers within" completely missing the fact that our fucking law system is unable to keep a pedophile asshole in the place it belongs? heres a note conservatives: don't you think we could do more for "our children" if we could keep the people who actually commited the crime in jail? what about if he had used a phone? whats the solution then? ban phones?
Go ahead MOD my day!
More opinions here
A child predator was caught using a car to lure his victims. Parents and politicians are outraged that cars can be used for such nefarious purposes, and have promised to enact legislation to limit the use of cars. Some are calling for an out-right ban on cars.
Software sucks. Open Source sucks less.
...because, you know, molestors never meet their victims through such wholesome, all-american activities.
Seriously, anyone with a grain of sense should be able to see that this is not a valid complaint against Xbox Live. Anywhere adults and minors can congregate and talk, adults who wish to take advantage of minors can find them. Crippling Xbox for the sake of those who fear pedos is no more sensible than the airline policy of not seating men next to children. Watch your kids, raise them well, and talk to them yourself to make sure they're not going to see some strange old man. Paranoia is no substitute for parenting.
Remember, there were no nuclear weapons before women were allowed to vote.
Where were the parents at?
It's this simple:
Put your kids' computers and internet connected devices in a family room, not in bedrooms.
Apply some discipline and supervision with usage.
Like the television, the Xbox and the Internet in general are the new babysitters, and that's bad.
- billn
The kid and adult then meet up, adult touches the kid, kid objects, adult leaves him alone, kid cries to mom, police gets involved and a media hype is born.
Frankly this sounds an awfull lot less nasty then the headlines make it out to be.
However kids are allowed to be stupid, adults are not allowed to touch kids in certain ways. The kid is innocent if stupid, the adult is wrong. How wrong is for a jury to decide.
MMO Quests are like orgasms:
You may solo them, I prefer them in a group.
What's the matter with kids these days?!
I spent the majority of my young teenage years screwing off on IRC with no supervision whatsoever. Everyone knows you don't meet IRL until you know who you're dealing with, I mean it's the internet for christ's sake...
I guess kids just don't have enough paranoia these days. Parents, you need to instill more fear in your children.
For more info, see this page
I live in Santa Rosa. Firstly I'd like to say I have no idea how they did anything illegal in any of the parks here with all the homeless people milling about. Secondly, why the hell wasn't think in our local newspapers?
- I voted for Nintendo and against Bush
It is obvious that you posted this only to incite anger in the rational members of the slashdot community. The fact that your post was modded insightful is evidence that few actually read comments before rating them.
In case you were serious: Kids are naive. They're KIDS. They don't always heed warnings by others. They don't always listen. That doesn't mean they don't deserve to be in the gene pool. That doesn't mean when they are abused it isn't a "loss". People who post comments in support of pedophilia are the ones who shouldn't be in the gene pool.
This brings up an interesting question on what age children should play online games. If it were up to me, I would only have people 16 yrs and above play. If a person (male or female) is between 10-14, they really do not have the maturity to tell if a person is a sexual predator or not. Plus, aren't most games played on Xbox Live carrying a Teen or Mature rating by the ESRB?
Sorry to burst your bubbles slashdotters, but there are few teenage homosexual boys that don't wind up having sex with 20-somethings at some point.
+5 Good Parenting :) The best you can do is influence them at a young age to be good critical thinkers, and then let them go into the world on their own. They may need a push in the right direction once in a while, but hopefully you gave them a good set of tools to use.
$8.95/mo web hosting
...and for a few moments there, I was really freaked out!
RAPIST HERE! You're playing games WITH A RAPIST.
You may save your kids, but you're gonna burrrrnnn...
In all seriousness, I cheer you on, sir.
This sig isn't original enough, it's time to come up with something witty...
I wish they wouldn't give people's names out if they are only accused. I could accuse Pat Robertson (say) of molesting children, but it wouldn't make it true. Tell us after there's a conviction.
And yes, that way some people who did wrong but were not convicted go unreported, but better that than destroy someone's life in error. We have no idea if the person mentioned actually did anything to the boy or not.
Live barefoot!
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Bit hard to pretend your [sic] HotLisa16F when your voice only comes in over the subwoofer.
But if it comes in over the tweeter...
At the age of 13-14 you should be smart enough to figure out basic things. Like say do not meet a stranger who has send you naked movies of himself (this is from the police press release) in a park.
If the kid had been asaulted while just playing in the park he would have had my sympathy but this 13-14 yr old male went on a date with an adult male who had been sending him naked movies of himself. Exactly at what point do you suggest people need to get a sense of responsibilty?
This kid was not abducted, he was not assaulted. if you read the police report what happened was that the boy meets man on date in park, man touches boy, boy objects, man stops, boy goes home, mom finds out and calls the cops.
The man obviously had pedo tendencies but this can barely be called assault let alone rape. The police report and official complaint do not in fact call it that.
No compared to real victims like in the case I linked to above this boy gets no sympathy from me.
/. is a harsh place. If you want crying people watch Oprah. Here we only have sympathy for people who can't help their misfortune.
MMO Quests are like orgasms:
You may solo them, I prefer them in a group.
Not the kind of "wattage" many people would find ENDearing...
I wonder if he'd like "a thousand watts up, around, down, across, over, through, alongside, between, betwixt, before, behind, above, below, beside, beneath, abaft, and all the other perp, umm, prePOsitions his own ass.
No, I didn't need a lot of perp, ummm PREparation time to pull those perp, ummm PREPOsitions out of my own ass.
I guess this means the xbox truly CAN lead to being a HEXED box. Hopefully the hexbox never becomes a "perpetration H" of sorts.
Previously: "Linux... Toward the Sunrise..." Now: "Linux... Toward the-- No, now, part of Every Sunrise"
That kid's lucky he's not dead. A lot of kids who do stupid shit like that end up dead, naked, dismembered and stuffed in garbage dumpsters.