A 13-year-old in the U.K. admitted to raping his 8-year-old sister, telling police he had been watching porn through his Xbox 360's browser when he "decided to try it out." The gut-wrenching case adds fuel to the controversy there over whether and how access to online pornography should be controlled.
While there are no dedicated applications serving porn to the Xbox 360, the console does feature a web browser that can access web sites the same as any browser on a PC. The console also can play DVDs. The source of the pornography was not described in news accounts about the assault and guilty plea.
The Lancashire Telegraph reported that the boy admitted the assault and specifically named the console as the device where he had been watching the porn, and that it inspired him to "try it out." The boy said he chose his sister because she was small and "couldn't remember stuff."
A detective told the court that "this is one of those tragic sexual experimentation cases."
The member of parliament for the area where the assault occurred called the case "breathtakingly horrible" and called on Internet service providers to "recognise that they have greater responsibilities for controlling access to porn."
U.K. ISPs have acceded to calls to filter pornography and other objectionable content, placing it on new customers to opt out of filtering as of the beginning of the year. But a new bill is set to be discussed in committee, one which proposes Internet users opt-in to viewing adult content by proving they are over 18
