A man has been sentenced to more than 10 years in jail for having sex with a 14-year-old he met on Xbox Live; after travelling 30 hours to get to her.
Edward Stout, a 27-year-old of Missouri, drove across states to California in order to have sex with the teen. They began relations in April 2008 and soon extended this beyond the service, messaging each other on myspace and sending sexually explicit images via mobile phones.
The man was arraigned back in February of this year, but the sentence was delivered just a few days ago. Upon release, he will face lifetime supervision and will be required to register on the sex offender list.
Unlike social networking, Xbox LIVE is far more anonymous despite vocal communications. Be careful kids.
Do you think Microsoft, needs better monitoring for their Xbox Live service? Is this something that can truly be monitored? Please comment below and let us know. No registration required to post.
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As a father of a 14 year old girl, he is getting the light punishment.
if i found out a 27 year old man had done what he did, i would do many bad things to him, and he would not live to see a prison.
first
I don’t think Xbox Live needs better monitoring. It’s good the way it is. Parents should take a more active interest in what their kids are doing and how much time they spend using social mediums (such as xbox live, facebook, etc…)
There’s no reason a 14 year old should be able to get away with beginning an affair with someone and carrying it through to the point of meeting up, and sending naked pictures to some person. Not that I think parents should completely disregard privacy, but boundaries must be in place, and enforced by parents.
Perhaps the monitoring would be better left to the parents. MS would have to team up with Myspace and cell phone companies to put a full picture on this story.
LEAVE HIM ALONE!!!
No, Microsoft should not have to improve anything, theirs such a thing as perinatal controls for someone under the age of 18 I think it is. Besides, parents should be watching who their kids are talking to anyway. If your kid talked to a stranger on the street wouldn’t you tell them they have to be careful who they talk to, yes you would, however I think because the person their talking to is on the other end of a system (Xbox,PS3,PC, etc) they think that person is like half way across the country and can’t/won’t hurt them any cause their so far away. Its also the kids fault really, just because their 14 doesn’t mean they can’t beware of the “dangers” of being online, but as I said it come down to the parents being at fault.
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X-Box is very dangerous to the Teen!
Well there you have it, 360 fails not just red ring of death but pedo’s have a new way to target an audience . Notice this hasn’t happen on the ps3 or even the wii
I’m afraid this is just not possible to monitor, its really up the PARENTS of these kids to take a more active effort to ensure their kids are not up to something wrong.
Why does Microsoft need to monitor -everybody- when its the responibility of the parents to monitor and care for their children.
We don’t need more supervison as a society, we need more active parents. I don’t know when it became okay to blame everybody but the parents…. be it schools, companies, movies, games, etc
Jesus Christ. Why do we always have to depend on the companies who provide the service to protect people? True, Microsoft should provide a certain degree of monitoring/protection, but really, what more can they do? There are parental settings on the xbox, but the problem is, finding parents who know how to use them and/or even care. The problem is, too many parents don’t pay attention to what they’re kids’ are doing online. How many 9 year olds do you run into, playing Call of Duty? A mature rated game! And parents buy these games for their kids! I love violent games. I have a kid. I know what to let him see/play and what not too. Too many parents think that the internet/video games/TV are a good babysitter. Too many parents would rather the kid rot their brain out with games, then actually interact with them. Sure, some kids can play violent games, and not have a problem. But, that’s not so much the biggest issue. You have little kids, picking up language from people like me (I am strongly censoring myself here). I swear my ass off when I play online. And kids shouldn’t be around that.
I feel the degree of monitoring/parental controls that Microsoft offers is good. Any more, and you’ll greatly limit the playing of people who aren’t doing the wrong shit. You can’t hold MS responsible for the actions of a pervert. Parents need to step up, and be more active in the lives of their children.
How about parents do some parenting?
Stop their kids from meeting up with strange men online, after all its not microsoft who made them meet up. Or just make xbox live 18+ only that would solve man issues including annoying kids on halo.
fook 360, you’re an idiot. Predators like this dude will get what they want one way or another. You can’t blame Microsoft. And trust me, I’m sure they’d find a way w/ PS3 or Wii. Anything w/ a social network can be used.
I would be ridiculous to monitor Xbox Live. Not to mention it would not have prevented this from happening.
i dont care sex with teen is good lol
haha, NO.
what needs to be monitored are the 14 year old girl’s parents.
This is totally not cool.
I think the parents need to monitor their kids more then a gaming console, plus xbox has a great monitor system but it needs the parents input.
That depends on the person using the service. For instance, I don’t accept friend request from those under 18yrs of age and I also publish that on my game sites. But you have those who dwell on young kids and use the service or any service in that case for that purpose only (We call them perverts). So when they get caught, they get exactly what they deserve.
So the 14 year old girl gave consent for this guy to have this relationship? Or did she have a false impression of this Man?
I don’t see why this guy has to get jailed for several years!
It’s not up to Microsoft to monitor every single interaction between users. It is up to the parents to understand and know what’s going on in their child’s life and teach them what is appropriate. The X Box is not a cheap babysitter.
If it happens once it’s a tragedy. A thousand times it’s a statistic. Microsoft won’t do anything until it’s a visible statistic.
The girl obviously consented. How can you better monitor something when both parties are trying to get around it?
This isn’t Microsoft/Xbox’s fault and there’s nothing they could do about it.
You can’t fault GM for people getting into car accidents.
PS: I just can’t wait till this girl get’s older and realizes what she’s done.
I really think it should be the parents of these kids responsibility to make sure things like this don’t happen. I mean for over a year , they were talking on more than just Xbox live. The question I always ask when I read this type of story , where the heck were the parents or friends of this teen?!
was it rape she let him fuck her ?
Stupid guy…did he think people would not find out? JEEEEZZZZ…What was he thinking…I know that 14 year old girls are more open about that kind of stuff these days, but jeez man, driving 30 hours for sex with a minor…sounds like this guy was asking for it.
Am I the only one not shocked about a 27 years old guy having a relationship with a 14 years old teen?
Come on.
wtf ;p
ok seriously, pay attention to your fucking kids man. How hard is it bust your 14 y.o. daughter for something like this… You pay for her cell phone, you pay for her xbox live account, you cant pay enough attention to realize she is dating a 27 yo man? Like fuck, take some responsibility parents. This is not microsofts problem at all.
Absolutely not. It said he had sex with her, not he raped her. I’m sure if this little girl saw him and talked to him like she must have, she could have guessed his age.
All these people on here that are sayign he got ‘Light punishment’ and ‘xbox needs to monitor it more’ need to realize how much she played in a part in it as well.
Don’t be one-sided.
As a frequent xbox gamer, I think they do as best they can with monitoring the games and such.
Seriously, the parents in this situation have to be nearly non-existant or abusive etc..I do not believe a well adjusted 14yrold would go to these lengths and one with decent parents would have been stopped before it got this far.
Also isn’t it 1/2 your age +7. this guy must be a real piece of work.
Hmm, sounds to me like the girl knew exactly what she wanted, and got it!
Jess
http://www.anonymous-web.cz.tc
To be blunt, speaking as someone who knows, 16 year old guys generally suck in bed. So it sounds like this girl wanted someone older rather than someone “age appropriate”.
Parents, PARENT!. Microsoft need not be in charge of monitoring your children, last time i checked that was what a parent does. You can’t blame a child who was unmonitored and can’t hold the man who coerced her completely responsible with out saying, where the fuck were her parents? not to mention, maybe she likes old dudes….bleh, future gold digger of America.
As someone who plays xbox live frequently I can attest to the fact that there are some pretty trashy things said and done on the service through vocal and text communication.
However policing all of it would be impossible and a little creepy. Why would you want an admin recording or listening in on your conversation to make sure it’s up to par? What would be considered “up to par”??
The system they use of peer feedback works well enough to get rid of cheaters and offensive gamer tags with threats of temporary bans. The only way I see that they could up the security of Xbox Live is to have tighter parental controls and/or lower numbers of complaints received before a gamer tag is banned or blocked from communication.
BT-dubs: They already do a pretty good job of both so I am just writing this incident off as poor parenting. Parents should know that this could happen and talk to/protect their kids from this kinda thing!
As a long xbox and PC gamer it is obviously not something to take lightly, but that said you would have to want that to happen to you for it to happen. Xbox is completely anonymous. She had to have almost came onto him for something like that to happen. That said I put 150% blame onto the parents and 0% onto xbox live.
It seems that the girl wanted it. People can make decisions at that age. She should get in trouble too!
I understand that what the 27 year old dude was absolutely wrong and he shouldn’t have done it. But seriously, where are this girl’s parents? Are some parents just this oblivious to what their kids are doing? And on that note, shouldn’t the girl have known better?
wait a minute… there was a teenaged girl on xbox live? i don’t believe it for a second!
am i the only one here that thinks this was completely okay? i think the guy should be free roaming the streets- what did he really do wrong? i guarantee the girl wanted it in the first place.
These parents should be punished also. They should do some jail time for negligence. The courts make money from jailing that poor guy who had sex with this randy young lass. If she is old enough to consent, and she is of child bearing capacity, then it is morally sound that she can engage sexually with anyone she wants and they should have brought her up to understand the meaning of responsibility instead of putting her in front of an XBox in her most important formative years.
Why is everyone shocked that a 27 year old was with a year old. In other countries it happens every day. There are 8 year old children being married off to 40 year old men. It wasn’t that long ago in North America things like these happened all the time. Families merged business, farm, wealth by the marriage of their young daughters to older men. It isn’t anything that is not still done and has been done over hundreds of years. People need to wake up and learn their history. Teenage girls are not that stupid or innocent. How many of them are texting naked pics of themselves to all kinds of people? Girls 12, 13, 14 having sex now a days is common place. Get a clue people. If you think that it isn’t going on you need to open your eyes and look around. You might be shocked at what you find.
Ok, reading this (and especially the comments about the guy getting a lenient sentence) makes me really angry. What a bunch of hypocrites the parents must be as well. The girl wanted and agreed to it in the first place – and he gets sent to jail for it. Yeah, sure, he should have known that it wasn’t legal, but with mutual consent there shouldn’t be any bloody case.
Seriously, you guys that say there shouldn’t be case are idiots. The fact of the matter is that the offense is ILLEGAL and he knew it was. There is no such thing as mutual consent when you’re a certain age. It’s the responsibility of the adult to know better. 14 year old girls usually have a sad and desperate need for love and attention. No matter how they think they can find it.
@Cyndy
Really? Learn your history? Just because it was done before, doesn’t make it right. Not long ago white men were the only ones with rights. A man stops a woman at a voting station and says “sorry, I’m not going to let you vote because you’re a woman.”
Will you continue to say that this same thing happened not long ago, and happens all over the world now, and that she should get over it?!
Parents are responsible for monitoring what there kids are doing online. Anyone under 18 should be under the supervision of their parents when online in any respect. The girl is lucky she is not dead. Kids are stupid and naive.
Yes there is something wrong with this story. I believe it was 100% the mans fault. That is just sick and wrong in every way.. I know some of you would love to put the blame on the teen because “she wanted it”.. People online can seem very ‘dumb’ and teens can be persuaded like cows to believe anything. We don’t know the whole story but either way this sicko should have kept his dick in his pants and stayed away from her.
The parents should be ashamed. “Everyone makes mistakes,” but not like this, not everyone should have children.
XBox-Live is at no fault as it is common sense. These sick people will always abuse any social network that comes out. Such an interesting world we live in isn’t it?
That man is sick, and pitiful for needing to drive 30 hours for it!
I bet they had some damn good sex.
Minek az iPhone meg az XBOX?Kell valakinek a gyerekének a Googlenál?Mert idáig a sok mindenböl egy tüt sem kaptam!Holnap Szent Este és még az állitolag megvásárolt és kifizetett,legalábbis a számlámrol levont ajándékok sehol sincsenek,és pénzem sincs.Mert a “becsületes szavahihetö Google” utoljára mára igérte,hogy szállitja a cuccom!Amilyen a mosdó olyan a törülközö,annyi jót várjatok tölem amennyit ti adtok vagyis csak rosszat!!!!!
As an avid Xbox LIVE gamer, I’d say that it’s more than adequate. It’s annoying when people say “oh X company should do this, X company should do that”. Whatever happened to parents BEING PARENTS? I like how Will put it (3rd comment). Parents need to take more of an interest in what their kids are doing and monitor as they see fit. This is like when Apple lowered the maximum volume on the iPods because people were turning them up too loud and damaging their hearing. Companies can only do so much before it’s up to common sense to take over. Unfortunately common sense is really lacking here in the US.
As for his sentence, everyone is going to say it’s light. The guy preyed on a 14-year-old girl at the age of 27. It’s despicable. They had sex consentually though, so it’s not like he raped her. Of course, going 30 hours out of your way is ridiculous, but where the hell were this girl’s parents?
Xbox LIVE actually has some parental controls on it that need to be taken advantage of.
Well said Daryn. People seem to lack a basic sense of responsibility now. It’s easier to complain about others failings then it is to acknowledge your own.
For as much as we complain about Nintendo’s online support, this is a huge “I told you so” moment for them.
I agree on your whole post pal this countries rules are very unbalanced.
I can’t believe how many people think it’s the parent’s fault or the girl’s fault… the dude is a friggin’ pedophile. I can’t believe you’d rather fault the victim or her parents but act like a 27 yr old man didn’t do anything wrong. 14 year old’s are naive and easy to mislead – it happens all the time – and unfortunately old enough and clever enough to mislead parents too. Unless you’re sitting right beside them all the time, which isn’t practical – and then you’d claim those parents were control freaks and overprotective anyway – this kind of thing can happen even with good parents. Just because a 14 yr old doesn’t have the cognitive skills of an infant doesn’t mean they understand the full consequences of their actions, and they certainly don’t have the experience to protect themselves from manipulative, sinister adults that want to take advantage of them.
How young does a kid have to be for this to be a crime in your eye? Sheesh…
And blaming the parents when you know nothing about what they did or didn’t do to try and protect their daughter?? Would you blame the parents if she got snatched off the street? What about if an adult family member or friend did the same? As kids get older they do get more freedom and can’t be watched at all times, which does unfortunately mean they are more at risk to be victimized by bad people too. But that doesn’t mean the parents are at fault when it happens, and it certainly doesn’t excuse the sinister and criminal behavior of an adult how intentionally sought out a sexual relationship with a 14 yr old.
What is wrong with you people blaming the girl and her parents, but make no comment about the sick dude, or worse defend him?
console scrubs lol
bad paresnt is bad
/closed
to me thisisall the parents fault xbox cleary wars ppl not to do anything illege and forparets to watch thei kids it even has settings to provent this if the parent cares to follow and watch but mst dont im 23 and i got no kids bt i say if ur under 18 u dont need cell phone with a cam they dont need cams if paents and ppl open their eyes they can see it to with all the videos of under age ppl onlinehat hey make whle their arents r home and away
but then theres pedos who r there chasing these under age girls i see theres to type f pedos those who take the girls by force via kidnipping these guy r sick an guys like this guy they fish for h girls they find her and full fill her teen dreams these type r the worse unlike the sick pedos these guys gain the girls trust so she cant see the fact that she was the guys blowup doll but this type is larger and more of a danger but it is the easies to provent
but come on man parents u let ur kid away with this shes fourteen xbox live mic omg if she plays halo 3 lol she was asking for it cause all men and teen on there are vulgar and hilkarouis with sexual jokes
Man i think this punishment is fair but. come on parents just care better about your sluty daughters
Firstly I don’t think Microsoft is at fault, it is the teen’s and the parents’ for not communicating. All social networks are liable to predators, so parents need to be aware and prepared to step in for their teens safety. I personally enjoy Xbox Live (being female as well) and I don’t believe any safety measures need to be taken, but instead any gamer/user must be aware that they are entering a social network and become liable to this activity. Therefore if any parent is thinking of giving their child an account for any network (ranging from live to email) to first evaluate the maturity and responsibility of the child. Sometimes I will visit some video game stores and see parents purchasing rated R games and live accounts for their seemingly young kids, so when I come across articles like this I am not very surprised at the outcome of the situation.
Microsoft is already taking steps to create a safer community for the youthful newcomers every year. Besides their efforts parents can also protect their child’s account by blocking contacts from older players, blocking contacts in messages, and all communications. The 360 as well has a time limit system allowing the parent to time their child’s time on live and keep them from over doing it. In conclusion all parents should keep an eye on their teen but be involved enough to take measures if needed, and all networks are liable to predator and sexually activity. So please if you are in any networks or communities and spot any unsafe behavior with any other user to report it and keep kids safe. Because its not only Microsoft that can keep kids safe.
Thank you for your response. I am the Grandparent that bought her 15yr granddaughter who lives with me xbox 360 . Not doing any research on this. Then I purchased the Live so she could get on games with her friends. Thought I was doing good. But now she is talking more than playing games and I do not believe it is the companys fault. I believe it is us as Parents , grandparents that do not fully understand what the xbox can do., And for the people that are blaming the 14 yr old girl for the pervert that drove down and molested her. As a adult we are to care for our ounger generation they are our future. I wish there was a site that just informs some layperson like me to all the information.. I beieve this is a great place to play games but needs to be parents involved with more knowledge than the teenagers,,
Oh, Pedobear. Will we ever run out of new spins on your old joke? I hope not.
Oh, Pedobear. Will we ever run out of new spins on your old joke? I hope not.
haha hope she felt good, 14 years old was a woman in the old days.