In Texas a teenager has been caged since March and is facing a further eight years behind bars after he joked about committing violence, while in California a man is to be caged for 32 months after he grabbed a boy and “sniffed” his arm. Both cases include charges of terrorism.

UPDATE:

Bob Brenton writes:

Thank you for bringing this case to light. I play that same game as our unfortunate texas youngster (League of Legends), and while his comment was a little over the top it is hardly unusual in that community. In fact, that game has a tribunal system for combating ‘toxic’ behavior and language, where you can report a player after a match. If you are a frequent offender you get judged by a jury of your peers who read over the chat logs of previous games in which the offender played. This may result in chat restrictions or temp / permanent bans from the game. The games designers use this tribunal system as a giant social experiment to remove toxicity, and help make players better (nicer) people. Contrast this with the government solution of locking up non-offending people with truly bad individuals, and you see why League of Legends actually can modify players to be better people, while prison modify people to be worse.

To be honest, without context and given that he said ‘lol’ and ‘jk’ after his comment – I probably wouldn’t have reported him for tribunal review. Most people who play League of Legends aren’t motivated enough to be terrorists.