Beware the Xbox Live Predator

26 year old Ronnie Watts of Placerville, CA has been arrested on charges that he molested a teenage boy that he came across while playing on Xbox Live. Watts has not yet entered a plea against the charges which include the use of the internet to solicit a minor. He is due back in court on January 20th. The man was arrested on December 15th after the teen told his mother about the alleged incident. The two gamers were to have come in contact with each other sometime during the months of October and November while online through Xbox Live. The two kept the relationship going through e-mail and other types of communications. Watt™s allegedly received the boy™s home address and phone number and the two met in a park in Santa Rosa where the molestatation supposedly took place in November. During a search of Watt™s residence in Placerville, which is 150 miles east of Santa Rosa, police seized an Xbox console, a laptop, and many different cameras. The charges against Watt™s are all covered by existing laws. This is one of the very first incidents to occur in the online gaming community. Because many of the home consoles have online capabilities, officials urge parents to maintain supervision and to use parental controls. In late November, the ESA trade body announced that specific parental controls would be placed inside all the new consoles from Microsoft, Nintendo, and Sony. The Xbox 360 already has parental controls that limit some of the online capabilities, which include voice chat.
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