A 28-year-old man from Copenhagen has been charged after authorities discovered that he was using gold from World of Warcraft to pay for naked pictures and videos from underage boys.
The unnamed man is currently in Copenhagen City Court, where he faces allegations of “grooming” 25 boys aged 12-16 years by using World of Warcraft to convince them to take photos and videos of themselves naked and, in some cases, masturbating. Authorities said he possessed a “significant” amount of in-game gold, which he offered to the boys in exchange for the material; he reportedly had roughly 10,000 photos and 1200 videos of underage boys on his computer when he was arrested.
Along with their exchanges in World of Warcraft, the man also spoke to the boys over MSN Messenger, where “more private exchanges could take place.” The man has acknowledged that he received the photos and videos via email but denied enticing the boys into it. A ruling on the matter is expected within a week.
There are a lot of questions that remain unanswered in all this, but I think we all know which one is going to come to the fore first: How long before videogames are somehow held responsible for this?
Source: Copenhagen Post Online
Published: Feb 5, 2010 07:13 pm