14 DAY TRIAL // There are voices that continue to claim that the online gaming (either on the classic PCs or on Xbox or PS3) is nothing but a heaven for child abusers, pedophiles and other sex freaks and, of course, part of that is true. We had a stalker a few months ago that went after a 15 years old girl, other people consider themselves cool by saying that they'll start a shootout at school, while others just say stupid things. Recently (or so we know) a new category appeared: the exhibitionists (or, maybe, even more than that) who start sending pictures of them nude, totally unsuitable for minors.
It also seems that the pervs have absolutely no preference regarding the console since two similar things happened on Xbox Live and a PS3 session of Burnout Paradise. The latter is funnier, since there is absolutely no way I could relate a racing game to something explicit - unless we go really, really far, to drive-in cinemas or cars hidden between the trees at night. Still, we had none of these here. Instead, we had a 12 years old boy shocked while playing the game: he bumped someone off in the game and, using the feature that sends a picture of your victim to your console, the boy got nothing but the man's naked bottom. And that's not something anybody would like to see...
CBS took this story to the next level, considering it a proof that pedophiles groom children for not-so-legal activities using Internet games, but they should have waited a little bit more, since something similar happened on the Xbox 360, Sony's console rival.
While playing an unnamed game on Xbox Live, two young boys received some naked pictures from "somebody". Fortunately, things didn't get too far since the boy's mother was close by, turned the console off and called the MS support but, as usual, she was told that there is nothing Microsoft can do about it. So she took the only decision that was left: ban her children from ever using the Xbox again. That is indeed upsetting for the two young fellows, but it's definitely going to keep them safe.
But that's not the thing we can say about the other kids in the world still playing and exposing themselves to all sorts of freaks and weirdos. But I'm sure a viable solution will arrive soon.