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Texan sex offenders may need to register online game handles photo

Quite why something like this hasn't been implemented sooner is beyond me, but it seems that Texas' legal system has finally caught up with the modern age and is considering a new bill that requires kiddy fiddlers to register their online game handles. It could even stop them playing games online completely. 

HB 22 is currently being written, and will likely include all known avenues of online gameplay, including Xbox Live, PlayStation Home and Second Life. It's quite shocking to think that convicted pervoids are currently allowed anonymous access to these services, but hopefully this will become a properly enforced law. 

It's also being suggested that HB 22 could go as far as to completely ban known sexual predators from online games altogether, which would of course be the best thing. The bill currently proposes that dirty bastards be banned from using the Internet to access social networking sites. The intepretation of such a rule could extend to online games, meaning that if you decide to shag a kid, you can kiss your Xbox Live subscription goodbye. 

I know if I were a pedo, the threat of not being able to play Killzone 2 anymore would be a crucial deterrent. This could save lives!


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34 comments | showing # 1 to 34

Justice's Avatar
Justice at 05/06/2009 17:03
Wow, I wonder if they'll get icons on their gamercards indicating this, or maybe a t-shirt that their avatar has to wear in PS Home notifying the rest of the world as to what they have done.

Anyway, what about friend codes?!
Buga's Avatar
Buga at 05/06/2009 17:03
but then how would i meet sugadaddies
Diverse's Avatar
Diverse at 05/06/2009 17:05
They always try to oppress the pedophiles.
Dexter345's Avatar
Dexter345 at 05/06/2009 17:07
One part of me wants to say that a total ban of online game play is unfair to any pedo who is trying to become a constructive member of society, but then another part of me doesn't really care.
Stahlbrand's Avatar
Stahlbrand at 05/06/2009 17:07
All fine and well as long as the convicted and banned are actually guilty of real offenses. You know Texas, prosecuters don't serve their career interests by being careful about who they charge and showy convictions are what elections are made of.

Because people flock to support bills like this, the conditions for which one could be branded a registered offender are growing, and no small amount of people get wrongly convicted or over-convicted.

Also, did anybody ask if perverts are actually committing offences facilitated by Xbox Live or similar services? Or is it just Law and Order paranoia running wild?
Conrad Zimmerman's Avatar
Conrad Zimmerman at 05/06/2009 17:10
At the risk of coming down on the side of pedophiles (never a popular point of view), this is bullshit. "Sex offender" covers an incredibly broad range of offenses that include some incredibly harmless ones. I have a friend who is a registered sex offender because he mooned somebody. He's not trying to fuck kids or anything, but he's registered.

There's an interesting article at The Daily Beast about some new research into the subject, which finds the entire fear of online sexual abuse to be vastly overblown and paranoid. The vast majority of sexual abuse occurs in the home and/or with someone the child knows, so I view this sort of legislation as looking in the wrong place.
Stahlbrand's Avatar
Stahlbrand at 05/06/2009 17:14
Conrad Zimmerman knows exactly what I was trying to say.
Zantetsuken's Avatar
Zantetsuken at 05/06/2009 17:15
This is purely to placate the parents in my personal opinion.


P
Necro BABS's Avatar
Necro BABS at 05/06/2009 17:16
So Texas has nothing more important to do then this? Really?
Zantetsuken's Avatar
Zantetsuken at 05/06/2009 17:20
People must understand the need to protect their progeny from paedophiles on PSN.

sorry
Atlas's Avatar
Atlas at 05/06/2009 17:26
There is no way to enforce this. How the Hell would they be able to track them if a pedophile simply makes a new World of Warcraft character?
BluDesign's Avatar
BluDesign at 05/06/2009 17:28
Metalocalypse
BluDesign

And... wait. OH! Texas SEX Offenders. I though they were wanting registration for people who feel insulted by living in Texas.
Naim Master's Avatar
Naim Master at 05/06/2009 17:29
Dammit !
BattyAdroit's Avatar
BattyAdroit at 05/06/2009 17:31
Conrad Zimmerman could not have put it better.

Conrad: Don't feel like you're coming down on the side of the cho-mos, though. You're coming down on the side of due process, the Constitution, and the Bill of Rights. These are things we too-easily throw out the window when we're afraid of any perceived SCARY-THREAT-TO-AMERICAN-CULTURE.
DaedHead8's Avatar
DaedHead8 at 05/06/2009 17:35
What Conrad said... Too many people would be banned from online gaming who never had the intention to abuse it.
Superfluous Moniker's Avatar
Superfluous Moniker at 05/06/2009 18:23
Yeah this guy named XxLegolasxX keeps insisting that I'm 'teh gayz' so I think we may need this kind of system.
The1WiTheGun's Avatar
The1WiTheGun at 05/06/2009 18:28
Totally agree with Conrad. The definition of 'sex offender' is just WAY too broad.

I personally was arrested after my 18th birthday for having sex with my girlfriend who I had been with for over two years! ..Luckily, her mom didn't press charges, but if she had, I'd be a registered sex offender now.

Do I go around playing grab-ass with little children? Hell no, that's some sick shit. I'll beat the ass of anybody I see trying to touch a kid.

If I got banned from online gaming over 10 years later for something like that, I sure as hell wouldn't think it was fair.

On the other hand, people who are caught using the internet or online gaming communities as tools to prey on children, I think they should be arrested, sentenced, AND banned from using/owning said devices as a condition of their parole... That would seem a little more fair, to me.
BattyAdroit's Avatar
BattyAdroit at 05/06/2009 18:37
Jim should read this. It is a pretty straight forward and easy-to-understand explanation why sex-offender registries do not work.

http://www.cracked.com/article_17216_p2.html
otogi guy's Avatar
otogi guy at 05/06/2009 19:00
what about NeoGaf
B-Radicate's Avatar
B-Radicate at 05/06/2009 19:06
Personally, I think this is a good idea. Hell, it's the smartest thing to come out of Texas since...
Holyetheline's Avatar
Holyetheline at 05/06/2009 19:23
Yeah that would be way cool if it works.
Chronic Logic's Avatar
Chronic Logic at 05/06/2009 19:38
Do pedophiles register any other identifications or any other means of connecting to other people? Is their telephone number registered? Is their Instant Messenger accounts registered?
CRAZYAPE69's Avatar
CRAZYAPE69 at 05/06/2009 19:50
Seems like a good way to combat it, afterall, most peadophile operate from their computers meaning they must have online games of some sort. I think taking the angry mom approach and saying 'no, no computer games for you because you touched billy, no' is a good idea. But did it really need to take this long for it to be implemented?
washedupgamer's Avatar
washedupgamer at 05/06/2009 20:00
I wonder if they would force a sex offender icon on them on Xbox Live... auto robot voice filter on everything as well methinks...
Vincent Cynical's Avatar
Vincent Cynical at 05/06/2009 20:33
Just remember that every time you piss outside, if caught, in most states, you are registered as a sex offender.
Velt's Avatar
Velt at 05/06/2009 21:40
You know that a 15 year old girl who is caught sending a nude picture can be registered as a sex offender?

So that tag has gone a long way from pedophiles.
Bigmoose85's Avatar
Bigmoose85 at 05/06/2009 23:26
@Vincent Cynical

Say what?!?!?!?
The-Excel's Avatar
The-Excel at 05/06/2009 23:38
Well, balls. So much for that theory.
Stahlbrand's Avatar
Stahlbrand at 05/07/2009 00:26
Yeah, again, say you're 16, say your 16 year old gf/bf has texted you a picture of his/her junk. Now say somebody has a grudge against you and tells the cops. Possession of child pornography, you're now a registered sex offender, your ability to participate in normal society is pretty much over, fuck-you very much.

It is scary easy for people who are -not- child rapists or serious perverts to get on lists of registered sex offenders.
TheToiletDuck's Avatar
TheToiletDuck at 05/07/2009 07:51
XxYungHungLuverxX
:)
silvain's Avatar
silvain at 05/07/2009 11:04
This has bad idea written all over it.

I wish society would make up its mind; either execute the pedophiles (or lock them up for life), or once they've served their debt to society, let them be. What we've got now is a strange mish-mash of letting them out but not letting them live freely, even though they have been "punished and reformed".

I feel sorry for them; I don't see how they are supposed to reform and function in society with the current laws.
yutt's Avatar
yutt at 05/07/2009 13:52
I'm glad most of the responses here seem to be informed and intelligent. This scarlet letter bullshit is completely out of hand. An 18 year old caught with a nude photo of their 17 year old girlfriend and future wife on their cell phone gets forever assumed a pedophile.

You even use the terms "kiddy fiddler" and "pedo". Are you trying to be a troll Jim, or are you really this dumb?
yutt's Avatar
yutt at 05/07/2009 13:54
I'm glad most of the responses here seem to be informed and intelligent. This scarlet letter bullshit is completely out of hand. An 18 year old caught with a nude photo of their 17 year old girlfriend and future wife on their cell phone gets forever assumed a pedophile.

You even use the terms "kiddy fiddler" and "pedo". Are you trying to be a troll Jim, or are you really this dumb?
yutt's Avatar
yutt at 05/07/2009 13:56
Sorry for the double-post. Not sure how that happened.
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