“Swatting”, the practice of prank-calling emergency services and have them raid someone’s home during a live broadcast, is one of the most terrible phenomenon in the gaming and streamer community. Not only is it a criminal waste of government money and resources, swatting can be very dangerous and traumatic to the live streamers who experience it.
The motives behind swatting incidents vary, but usually they are for rather silly reasons like disliking the streamer in general and even going as low as just losing a match to someone in Call of Duty (an example that actually happened).
Thankfully, the law is finally catching up to this ugly phenomenon. One 24-year old man in Germany has been sentenced to 3.5 years jail time for swatting and other charges of computer fraud, incitement and spreading of child pornography. The single swatting incident by itself got him a sentence of 1.5 years.
As reported on the German website Bayerischer Rundfunk, and translated by NeoGAF user Aesop, the unidentified man has tried and failed to swat three other streamers in the past. If those were successful, his sentence could have reached 4.5 years.
Apparently, this is the first court ruling for a swatting case in Germany, and the Nürnberg court wanted to deter anyone thinking of committing the crime in the future.
Hopefully, this kind of harsh punishment can finally end this terrible trend. Still, we recommend you never share any personal information online and be wary of what viewers can see when you stream, like your phone number or address.
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