Editorials
So who's watching the kids?
By The Regulation Gnome
Jun 8, 2007, 07:46

Recent news stories (as well as internally gathered information, the details of which must remain confidential for journalistically ethical reasons) have prompted the staff at 68Calibr to ask the following questions:

Has the paintball industry become a refuge for pedophiles, rapists, drug addicts, undeclared sex offenders and other criminals?

If so, is it because paintball is an inherently youth-oriented industry-or is it because the industry has no means of background checking in place?

Are the hair-raising stories we've been hearing an isolated statistic or the tip of an iceberg trend?

Does something need to be done about it and, if so, what?

The most recent news story concerns a paintball store owner who was arrested on charges of pedophilia.  Believing as we do in the concept of innocence until proof of guilt, we'll not name names (the information is publicly available).  Right now we wish to address a potential problem, rather than focus on individual incidences.

What we have been made aware of is the following:

The above named incident
An individual claiming to be a 'scout' for a paintball camp taking half-naked pictures of young boys and engaging in touching that borders on fondling
An individual who used to work for a well-known paintball company who was arrested for pedophilia
An individual who was convicted of a major sex crime who is now highly placed in the industry
Well grounded rumors concerning the use of illicit drugs by numerous highly-placed industry individuals
A team owner who has purportedly slept with every 16 year old on her team
The common saying that "if it weren't for NASA's drug-testing policy, there would be no paintball industry"
Persistent stories concerning the sexual habits, illegal drug habits and other socially unacceptable behaviors surrounding numerous highly placed individuals in the industry

The old saying goes "where there's smoke, there's fire", and given everything that we've read, been told about and even seen with our own eyes, we can say without doubt that the old saying is true.  What we can’t say is exactly how true and to what extent its true for the entire industry as opposed to a few bad actors.

We're not trying to act the tease here:  we have enough confirmed information to print stories regarding at least three separate incidents related to the above.  We've chosen not to for a variety of reasons, not the least of which is that we would undoubtedly become embroiled in numerous (unjustified, nuisance) lawsuits that would at the very least distract everyone from our primary purpose of attempting to raise everyone's awareness.

(Besides, writing it this way has the added benefit that someone out there might just be  stupid enough to accuse us of talking about them...)

So, rather than becoming a scandal sheet, we'll focus on the issues.  The first thing to realize is that paintball is not some hallowed preserve, protected by magical runes that prevent the real world from intruding.  Bad things happen to good people everywhere and paintball is no exception.  Players get robbed, equipment is used for vandalism, stores get broken into by the same guy who was in a bunker next to you this past weekend, business people use questionable tactics, lots of folks don't pay the taxes they ought to, kids go to the field to engage in under-age drinking, do illegal drugs, and, sad to say, pedophiles are drawn to activities that just happen to have kids participating in them.  The paintball field is no exception.

Next on the list is the fact that paintball, as an industry, is completely un-regulated.  Or, as the industry likes to spin it-self-regulated.  Self-regulated implies that there's some kind of benevolent paintball cop that sees all, knows all and is making sure that only good things happen.  What it really means is that about the only thing the industry has managed to cooperate on is keeping anyone from imposing any kind of outside regulations on it.  There may be a few towns, cities or states that have some laws concerning the use of paintball equipment, but nowhere is there any group, organization, body, government, lobby, committee or proletariat that is checking anything for anybody.  There are no drug tests for employees (in fact, all of the major sports leagues in the industry have successfully prevented the implementation of player testing), there are no background checks, there's no better business bureau and no formalized ethical guidelines for running a paintball company, field or team.  Sure, there are plenty of folks who have various feel-good internal policies, but there's no method of enforcement and no real consequence for breaking them.  Teams are a good example:  leagues may ban a player or a team for bad behavior and what happens?  The team changes its name, or the player goes and plays in another league for the period of their punishment.  Quite literally, it sounds just like the Catholic Churches' policy for dealing with pedophile priests-send them to another parish where no one knows them and they can start all over again-and we’ve all seen how well that works!  The industry can't even get its act together when it comes to bad debt.  You'd think they'd be doing something collectively when it comes to a subject as important as money, let alone the safety and well-being of its customers-your children-but the truth is that some people have made a career of moving from one stiffed supplier to the next, fully enabled by the industry's inability to cooperate and its practice of putting profits ahead of everything else.

What can you do?  Very little as it turns out.  You might want to cough up the fifty bucks and run your own background check on the local field owner (the one who's been babysitting your kids every weekend).  You might want to get together with the other parents of paintball-playing kids in the area and make sure one of you is with your kids all the time.  You'll probably want to have a few sit-downs with the children and arm them with a little knowledge for their own protection.  Or you may want to question the entire idea of  sending them off for a weekend with total strangers who don't even have a little piece of paper from the local government certifying them as 'safe' for kids. 

What can the industry do?  Step up.  Take a good, hard look at the people you work with, for and employ.  Join the rest of the world and do some casual, perfunctory background checks.  Look into the rumors.  Ask yourself if you'd trust the guy you just took an order from with your son or daughter.  Then, when you realize that you actually know very little about the people you do business with, start to find out more.  If you want to enjoy the freedoms of being an un-regulated (sorry, self-regulated) industry, make sure the industry you are a part of is deserving of the same.