Boy Receives Porn on Xbox Live; Mom Goes Nuts

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A predator sent pictures to an 11-year-old boy on Xbox LIVE.

Just because gamers are playing their favorite titles on a "closed" network, that doesn't mean they're immune to the powers of predators and porn. One Texas mother made this discovery after her 11-year-old son received pornography from an online gamer he met via Xbox LIVE.

"When they are playing against their friends, it's a controlled environment," explained mom Rosie Garcia in an interview with San Antonio's News Channel 9. "But when they join a party, it can be someone in Japan, Australia, anywhere in the world."

According to Garcia, her son made contact with a gamer he met in an unspecified game. Although the details regarding the transaction between the two were not discussed, apparently the new "friend" sent the boy pornographic pictures. There was no indication of what the pictures actually contained, however the News Channel 9 report mentioned the word "predator," leaving little to the imagination.

Upon receipt of the images, the mother immediately called the San Antonio police. The also called Xbox LIVE and provided the Gamertag information, and then filled out a complaint form on the Xbox LIVE website.

Pornography on Xbox LIVE isn't anything new. Back in 2008 one Michigan mother filed a complaint after her two children were exposed to nudity via the Xbox LIVE camera. A representative told the mother that Microsoft couldn't monitor content transmitted from camera to camera. Although the mother contacted the local authorities to report the "crime," she eventually canceled the Xbox LIVE subscription, fearing the "safety of her children."

Gamers and parents who want to keep Xbox LIVE "clean," a "NO PORN FOR XBOX LIVE" petition is online, written by Dan Arrey. The petition came online after Vivid Entertainment revealed its interest in bringing porn-related content to Xbox LIVE. It doesn't address situations like predators and naughty gamers, but it's a start.

So far the petition has a whopping 12 signatures.

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Kevin Parrish

Kevin started taking PCs apart in the 90s when Quake was on the way and his PC lacked the required components. Since then, he’s loved all things PC-related and cool gadgets ranging from the New Nintendo 3DS to Android tablets. He is currently a contributor at Digital Trends, writing about everything from computers to how-to content on Windows and Macs to reviews of the latest laptops from HP, Dell, Lenovo, and more. 

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79 Comments Comment from the forums
  • theuerkorn
    I would be upset too if one of my daughters engaged in such activity, but I would be upset with her. It takes two.
    Reply
  • mhughes81
    What do you expect to happen when you let a video game console that is hooked up to the net babysit your kids?
    Reply
  • doped
    the problem is not the service, or the people. everywhere in the world 'bad' stuff happens, and nudity and porn just happens to be everywhere people go. letting children on the internet(xbox live or whatever, still the internet) is the same as exposing them to the world, in the sense that it's uniting the whole world, and therefore bad things will find you. it's the same as letting your child outside, deal with it the right way, by not having children on the internet by them selves. end of discussion.
    Reply
  • Efrayim
    OMG It has 15 now >.> Yes you can try to protect your children from these predators, but trying to control something like Pornography on something that is connected to the Internet is just plan unrealistic. I mean look at the iPad Steve Jobs said that he will keep Porn off of it, but People manged to get on there.
    Reply
  • Harby
    "So far the petition has a whopping 12 signatures."

    Says it all.
    Reply
  • TurnedX
    Well in a gaming world... Who wouldn't expect other sorts of ,,visual games''? Since Xbox LIVE is a humongus gamer base.. Anything can happen.
    Reply
  • Silmarunya
    So the mother is angry at Xbox Live and not at the stupidity of her own son - or her own lack of responsibility?

    The kid was 11 years old. At that age, your parents should have told you something about the risks of the internet. And if that kid had received this explanation and still got into this mess, it's his own fault.

    And besides, seeing porn at age 11 isn't the end of the world - assuming the mother in question takes a few minutes to talk about it.
    Reply
  • kikireeki
    If you can not control your child's activity, why would you try to control the others'?
    Reply
  • Supertrek32
    I really wonder sometimes.... How can parents not understand by now that the internet isn't the friendliest of places. Something like this should have been expected by the parent, and if they think their child can't handle it, they should have enabled the child restrictions regarding communications with strangers.

    The parent carries a large amount of blame for this. It's messed up that someone would send an 11 year old this stuff (assuming the guy even new how old he is...?), but inappropriate content being shown to minors by strangers on the internet isn't exactly a rare occurrence - and it's not like the media hasn't been reporting it.
    Reply
  • djackson_dba
    Wonder if they were pictures of the mom...
    Reply