Registered Sex Offenders in New York Targeted by ‘Operation Game Over’

Registered sex offenders of all designations residing in the state of New York will no longer be able to interact with children in some online console and PC games. New York State Attorney General Eric Schneiderman's office has convinced several platform holders and game companies such as Microsoft, Apple, Blizzard Entertainment, Electronic Arts, Warner Bros. and Disney Interactive Media Group to shut down the communication privileges of registered sex offenders. The New York State AG is calling it "Operation: Game Over" (official press release here).

As well intentioned as this agreement might seem, it is troublesome because an Attorney General from one state has managed to bend some of the biggest players in the games industry to his will instead of allowing the New York State legislature pass a law that deals with the issue. On the other hand there are rules in place about online interactions and registered sex offenders related to Facebook and other Internet activities. Some states require registered sex offenders to turn over all their account information to a state agency or law enforcement.

We can assume that this agreement covers online gaming on the Xbox 360, iOS devices, in World of Warcraft and other Blizzard games, all of Turbine's MMO titles, and Disney's various online games. Sony and Nintendo were not mentioned, but chances are they will join the ranks at some point. Schneiderman described online gaming as the possible "21 century crime scene" if steps aren't taken now to deal with sex offenders. He also said that his office is looking at ways to get this agreement expanded to other states.

Source: NBC New York 4. Thanks to EZK for the tip. Original image provided by Shutterstock.



  1. 0
    Neo_DrKefka says:

    Here are the problems.

    -Teens are labelled sex offenders for sexting

    -An old man from IL was labeled a sex offender for getting out of his car and scolding a young boy who drove his bike into the street coming into on coming traffic.

    -You can be labeled a sex offender if you go into another country as a U.S Citizen and sleep with someone under the age of 18. Even if that countries age of consent is 16 or 17.

    Also keep in mind the age of consent in states differ. Depending on your age the age of consent someone who you can sleep with if your 18 is 14.

    The Age of Consent laws in the U.S are out dated like most of our systems. They come from a post WWII War system that are new and have shown not to work and like many post WWII laws they have been breaking this nation.

    The fact sex offender laws group everyone in with someone who actually raped or molested someone makes it worse. The fact the states treat females different even as sex offenders is shocking as well.

    Here in IL we have two forms of age of consent laws. First Age of Consent Law is 17. So if I am 98 I can sleep with a 17 year old in high school with no fear of going to jail. Second age of consent law in IL is by profession. Meaning it doesn't matter the age she can be 98 and I can be a 21 year older teacher or doctor. If I was a teacher and this person was going to college late in life and even if I did not teach the person I can be charged as a sex offender and sent to jail.

    Note the sex offender by profession or someone in position in power has been struck down by various state courts in other states we shall see if it happens here.

  2. 0
    Neeneko says:

    In general the people who are actually delectably dangerous have another black hole they fall into.  

    You know those insanity pleas the people complain about 'letting guilty people free'?  Well, increasingly they have been using the same mechanism to stop some sex offenders from ever leaving prison.. essentially making them serve out there sentence THEN institutionalizing them for life.  Which while I agree they need to be kept off the streets, it is a pretty disgusting political abuse of process to utilize and is a good example of what scum sucking political entities prosecutors can sometimes be.  I am still hoping someone finally strikes down the practice due to double jeopardy….


  3. 0
    Algus says:

    Yeah.  Unfortunately no one wants to be a spokesman for Sex Offenders so instead, every person who ever did something stupid is treated like a child rapist.   Never mind the fact that if they've served their time and been released, they've allegedly "paid their debt" to society.

    If someone is so dangerous that we have to take away their rights to privacy to ensure they don't hurt anyone, I don't understand why we're letting them back out on the street in the first place. 

  4. 0
    Neeneko says:

    They are thinking election year, claiming an increased number of 'captured' sex offenders looks really good on paper, and anyone who defends 'sex offenders' is easy political prey.

    So no one in politics has much of an incentive to remind people that child molesters make up a small percentage of offenders or even worse that recidivism rates for sex offenders and child molesters are very low… thus these laws do very very little to actually protect children anyway.

    They are little more then very expensive reelection tools who's only victims are untouchables anyway.  Safe political fun.

  5. 0
    greevar says:

    Sex offenders != Child molesters. WTF are they thinking? Not only that, but the bar for getting labeled as a sex offender is pretty low. Even pissing in public can get you put on the list.

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