It’s tempting to hang one’s head in shame when reading this story, and wonder why they had to ruin it for the rest of us, but you really had to know it was coming sooner or later.
A Lansing, Michigan mother named only as Jennifer (probably just so they could keep this story an exclusive) says that her children unwillingly was subjected to nude images by another player. Needless to say, this has sparked lots of people into saying that Xbox Live is a dank pit of creepy pedophiles.
The writer of this story was quick to be the first, "Video games are meant to be a haven mostly targeted towards children but just like logging onto the Internet, state police say online games have become a magnet for sexual predators."
Egregious grammatical errors aside, you simply have to wonder about the parenting skills of this woman who is apparently so very concerned about her children. None of the games that include the use of the Xbox Live Vision camera do so in a hidden way. It’s usually in your face the entire time.
So if she had even spent a modicum of time seeing what it is her kids were playing, she would have seen the camera in action. And you can’t convince me for even a moment that there is a person alive who has seen the Xbox Live camera and not thought, "wow, I bet lots of people take pictures of their junk and send it to people."
Especially as a mother, if that doesn’t pop into your brain, then you’re not thinking enough about your children. Should small children be subjected to the Xbox Live Vision Camera? Absolutely not. But also keep in mind that this report never mentions the age of the kids. In fact it doesn’t focus on these kids much at all. Keeping the focus instead on the practice of pedophilia in online games. Why is this significant? Well, to be frank these kids probably weren’t kids at all. Probably teenagers if I had to guess.
Every reporter is taught to think of every possible way to give their story more emotional impact. And this journalist would have to be a fool to not use the small child’s age to their advantage. You can also point back to the part where they never mention her last name; probably afraid a competitor would figure it out.
[via WLNS]
