New York State announced yesterday that they've removed the accounts or suspended the communications privileges of over 3,500 registered sex offenders from various online gaming services. Xbox Live is named specifically, though the press release sent out also mentions "Apple, Blizzard, Electronic Arts, Disney, Warner Bros. and Sony." Each company reportedly cooperated fully with authorities in the bannings.
New York law requires those on the sex offender registry to supply the state with their email addresses and user names, which can then "be made available to certain websites so they can purge potential predators from their online networks."
Keep in mind that getting on the registry is easier than you might think—peeing in public, for example, can be considered a sex crime. If we got banned from Xbox Live every time we pissed in an alleyway, we'd have to find a new job.
Still, somebody needs to think of the children. Should registered sex offenders be banned from or denied features of services that they've legally paid for because minors might be using the same service? Let us know what you think in the comments or on Twitter.
[via Joystiq]
