The community of the MOBA League of Legends is considered toxic, particularly aggressive and unpleasant. However, the actions of a 17-year-old went far beyond that.
“The anonymity of the internet protects against any prosecution” – or so thought a 17-year-old who now has to serve his prison sentence after harassing women in both virtual and real life.
Boredom as a motive for harassing women
A 17-year-old has now been sentenced to 16 months in prison by a Canadian court after terrorizing over two dozen girls and young women on the internet. Especially female LoL players were among his victims. When the women did not accept his friend requests or otherwise ignored him, he began his harassment: He called the local police and claimed to have taken the girl’s family hostage or to have killed someone in their home. At the same time, he published the women’s addresses and contact information online and repeatedly called them late at night.
In a particularly severe case, police were called to the same girl’s house twice and took family members into custody at gunpoint.
Viewers alert the police
All these incidents came to a sudden end after he held an eight-hour stream during which he “swatted” numerous players (sending SWAT teams to their homes). The viewers of the stream reported his behavior to the police, who were able to track him down.
The young man has now been convicted in 23 cases, including oddities such as a bomb threat at Disneyland in 2014.
He must serve the first 8 months of his sentence in prison, while the second half is on probation. During this entire time, he is prohibited from using the internet.
Personal opinion: For a brief moment, I felt pity for the young man, because I thought: “He is 17, he is doing stupid, stupid pranks.” But then I saw the video of how ruthless he is: He lies to a police officer and tells him how he broke into a house, booby-trapped the property with bombs, has the family with 3 children in his control, and executes one of them every hour if they do not comply with his demands – all under the name of another person who has done absolutely nothing wrong.
The terror that this man has caused for the affected individuals when their apartment is stormed by police officers can hardly be fully understood by anyone. I can only hope that he learns from his punishment – and that the victims have not suffered long-term damage.
Take a look at the video yourselves and judge then. The conversation with the police officer begins at 6:25.
The title image was taken from Eurogamer, which got it from the police, and they used this blurring effect to protect the identity of the 17-year-old.
Relevant to the topic, you should not miss the following article: Crime in online games: A problem that concerns us all – Expert interview.
