A Kentucky man has been arrested today for allegedly convincing an 11-year-old Houston girl to send him naked photos using his PlayStation 3 console.
Anthony Scott Oshea of Somerset, Kentucky, was taken into custody by local authorities, charged with with three felony counts, including promotion of child pornography and online solicitation of a minor, after allegedly receiving naked photos of the young girl and then e-mailing them to people in at least five states, all through the PS3. Harris County Texas prosecutor Eric Devlin claims that Oshea "groomed" the girl over a period of time, befriending her and bothering her for photos until she finally relented.
Houston authorities are hoping to bring Oshea to Texas to stand trial.
It should really go without saying at this point, but parents need to be aware of what their children are doing online at all times. News of sexual predators reaching children through the games they play is becoming more and more commonplace, with terrible stories like this popping up with alarming regularity. Today more than ever, letting your child wander about the internet, whether on a console or a computer, is the same as setting them loose in a crowded city, only in this case the reach of the sexual predators is so much greater, and their inhibitions dulled by the perceived anonymity the internet provides.
As this arrest shows, that anonymity isn't as complete as the predators would like, but it was enough to ruin the innocence of a little girl, and that's a damn shame.
PlayStation Sex Crime: Criminal Used Video Game to Get Girl's Naked Pictures [ABC News]