Children Targeted through X-Box Live

March 9th, 2008, 21:24 Posted By: wraggster

A Lansing mother was shocked after her two children were subjected to nude pictures on X-Box Live.

Michigan State Police say this disturbing crime should be a wake up call for parents.

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.

Detective Thomas Kish, Computer Crimes Unit: "Mom and dad don't ordinarily think that there's any danger in that and it is a potential danger and something that we all need to be concerned with."

Jennifer says her two sons were the latest victims to an Internet crime.

Thursday night while playing a game on X-Box Live, a video game that allows you to play against people anywhere in the world, they were exposed to nude pictures sent from someone on the other end.

Jennifer, Lansing Resident: "I immediately grabbed the X-Box controller from him, and I went ahead and turned it off. And then I went ahead and called X-Box live, and they told me there was nothing they could do about it. "

Jennifer now fears the safety of her children.

State police say a crime like this is exactly why parents should be aware of online video games.

Detective Thomas Kish: "X-Box Live in particular has video capability so you can see two-way video. It has the ability for text messaging, instant messaging back and fourth. The ability to receive voice messages, so it's as much of a medium as your home computer and parents need to really be aware of that."

And while Microsoft, the maker of X-Box, does give ways to deal with offensive players online, Jennifer says the damage to her children from this incident has already been done.

And she has banned her children from using X-Box Live to protect them from becoming prey to online predators.

http://www.wlns.com/Global/story.asp?S=7985534&nav=5D7v

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