New York Attorney General Eric T. Schneiderman announced yesterday through his site that companies including THQ and Funcom have joined Operation Game Over and pledged to remove the accounts of registered sex offenders from their games. The newest lot of 2000 or so offenders have had their accounts removed, joining the 3,500 removed earlier in the year by companies such as Microsoft, Apple, Blizzard and Sony.
According to Schneiderman “The Internet is the crime scene of the 21st century, and we must ensure that online video game platforms do not become a digital playground for dangerous predators. That means doing everything possible to block sex offenders from using gaming systems as a vehicle to prey on underage victims. I applaud the online gaming companies that have purged registered sex offenders from their networks in time for the holiday season. Together, we are making the online community a safer place for the children of New York.”
New York State has introduced an Act that says convicted sex offenders must register all of their e-mail address, screen names, and other Internet identifiers with the state. Operation Game Over is the first time that the act, labelled e-STOP, has been applied to online gaming platforms.
The United States has approximately 750,000 offenders total, 34,000 of which are in New York alone. Operation Game Over continues its aim of protecting children from sexual predators online, and paves the way for other countries to introduce the same procedure. Australia had over 17,000 acts of sexual assault in 2010 alone.
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