Online game lets players report real-life crimes to win money

Thousands of CCTV cameras are placed throughout Britain’s city centres, shops and businesses. A company called Internet Eyes has created an online game that allows players to watch these cameras and earn points when they report something suspicious or a crime taking place. At the end of the month, the players with the most points will win cash prizes up to £1000 (about $1700 CAD).

When I first learned about this game, I wondered how Internet Eyes could stop people from abusing the system by reporting absolutely everything they see. According to the Daily Mail, “Players are awarded one point for spotting a suspected crime and three points if they see someone committing an actual crime.  Players also lose points if the camera operator rules that the alert was not a crime.” Sounds fair. The only problem is that this doesn’t seem to be the case. Upon further investigation, I discovered from the Internet Eyes website that:

Owners of the camera you notified will rate your alert:

Negative = you alerted incorrectly= 0 points
Neutral = you acted in good faith but it wasn’t a crime =1 points
Positive = a crime was committed and helped the owner of the camera by notifying them = 3 point

So, as a way to ensure players are reporting responsibly, Internet Eyes provides a user with three free alerts. Once you’ve used those up, you need to purchase more, at £1 per alert (about $1.67 CAD). Are people actually going to dish out money from their own pockets to report a crime that may or may not be happening and may or may not have something done about it? The way I see it, this is a game for gamblers; those who don’t mind putting out some bucks in order to possibly win the £1000. I think the game has great potential and, if it were free, would be a great idea to help reduce crime.

Of course, there are people against the idea. From the Daily Mail article I liked to above, “The game has been condemned by civil rights campaigners who claim it will encourage people to spy and snitch on each other.”

What do you think? Would you like the streets of Toronto or Vancouver to have such a program in place? Is your opinion altered by the fact that you need to pay to play?