Daily BrewU.S. sex predators using video games to lure Canadian kids, police warn
We all know now that the Internet is a hunting ground for sexual predators but it's surprising to hear networks for video game consoles managed by companies such as Sony, Microsoft and Nintendo are also crawling with perverts.
CBC News reports Winnipeg police recently investigated seven instances of people making sexual advances to children via video-game consoles. A number of other cases turned up elsewhere in Canada, with arrests made in Sault Ste. Marie, Ont., Trois Rivieres, Que. and St. John’s, N.L.
It was shockingly easy for a CBC reporter to bring predators out into the open. She went online posing as a 13-year-old girl and within minutes was sent messages by several individuals asking explicit sexual questions, requesting photos and suggesting they chat directly.
[ Related: Video game chat monitoring urged to prevent child luring ]
Some said they were the same age as the reporter's fake teen persona, a tactic potential predators use, Det.-Sgt. Darren Oleksiuk of the Winnipeg police's internet child exploitation unit told CBC News.
Of the cases Oleksiuk investigated recently, all but one involved a a suspected predator in the United States, CBC News said.
On the surface at least, the overall number of such incidents seems low. Cybertip.ca, the federally sanctioned web site fighting child sexual exploitation, has been warning parents about predators using gaming consoles since 2005, director Signy Arnason told CBC News.
Cybertip, run by the Canadian Centre for Child Protection, passes on about 10 tips a year to police for investigation but Arnason suspects most luring attempts go unreported. Kids are reluctant to tell their parents because their games might be taken away.
Parents have been schooled for years to monitor their children's online-computing activities — web surfing, social networking — but it seems as though the potential threat via gaming consoles is less well understood. Perhaps many see them as part of a closed network where they can safely plunk their children for hours of unsupervised play.
The centre's Internet-awareness program, The Door That's Not Locked, includes a section about the risks from gaming consoles and how parents can address them.
But what is the responsibility of the companies running these networks to ensure kids play safely?
CBC News, which ran its little sting on a Sony Playstation console, contacted Sony, Microsoft (XBox 360) and Nintendo (Wii) and asked that question.
What it got was a statement from the Entertainment Software Association of Canada, whose spokesman Julien Lavoie said the industry cares about the safety of users and gamers. But, he said, “parents and their kids should always use caution and vigilance when engaging with any form of connected media.”
A page on the association's web site offers parents tips on regulating their children's use of their game consoles.
Is that good enough?
The federal Department of Public Safety's web site on Internet child sexual exploitation notes Cybertip works with major Internet service providers via Project Cleanfeed to curtail child-porn web sites and via the Canadian Coalition Against Internet Child Exploitation to protect children from online predators. The site lists ISPs Bell, Shaw, Telus, Rogers and MTS/Allstream. If online gaming operators are part of the coalition, they're not listed here.
[ Related: Former teacher appears in court on child-luring charges ]
Mark Hecht, co-founder of Beyond Borders, which fights child exploitation and trafficking, told CBC News companies that profit from marketing to children should take more responsibility than just warning parents and kids to beware.
“It’s unfair to put pressure on a 12-year-old to make the same decisions that a 20-year-old would make,” said Hecht, noting children have become sophisticated at concealing online activities they don't want their parents to see.
“So while many parents think they’re very aware of what their kids are doing online, the reality is they’re probably not."
Hecht said gaming companies should take a more active role in ensuring their networks are safe and if they don't, governments should step in to regulate them.
Last year, for example, New York state asked several online gaming operators to ban accounts associated with registered sex offenders, which has resulted in more than 5,500 being removed from online games, CBC News noted.
Such vetting isn't a panacea — a predator can always forge an identity — but it's a start.
