A video game depicting child abuse and domestic violence was condemned as 'repulsive' last night by MPs and campaigners.
In one harrowing scene, a girl aged about ten is heard screaming as her father apparently beats her to death in her bedroom.
Elsewhere, she says: 'He's coming, he's going to hurt me.' In another sequence, the child runs upstairs trailed menacingly by her belt-wielding father who shouts: 'Alice, Daddy's very mad.'
The multi-million pound game, Detroit: Become Human, is likely to be a hit when launched next year by Japanese games giant Sony. It is already available to pre-order on Amazon for £46.
Tory MP Damian Collins, Chairman of the Culture, Media and Sport Select Committee, said: 'It is completely wrong for domestic violence to be part of a video game regardless of what the motivation is. Domestic violence is not a game and this simply trivialises it. I worry that people who play this who themselves have suffered abuse will use this game to shape the way in which they deal with abusers.
'It's dangerous to plant the seed in people's minds that the way to deal with abusers is to use violence against them. It's counter-productive and could put them in even more danger.'
ESTHER RANTZEN: This isn't just savage - it's highly dangerous
There was a time – more cruel and less civilised than ours – when public executions were enjoyed as entertainment.
In those savage days, crowds watched old women being drowned as witches and animals tortured for fun.
But I've never heard of little girls being beaten with a belt as part of a game. That, in my view, is not just savage, it's seriously damaging.
Who would play such a game for fun? People who are impervious to the suffering of children.
At Childline I have listened to the voices of beaten children.
I remember a paediatrician telling me of a child whose body carried the scars of dozens of ferocious beatings with a belt.
How could anyone even contemplate creating a video game with that as a 'fun' element in it?
Then there is the added danger that a child might play this hideous game – perhaps a child who lives with violence, who has been beaten or watched parents physically fighting.
How many nightmares will this game provoke?
Criminals who attack children often create similar fantasies in their imaginations before they act them out. Such a criminal would regard this game as a validation.
The designers of video games have a duty to protect children, and that responsibility extends to protecting virtual children.
We never want anyone to believe that beating a child to death with a belt is the stuff of entertainment. It should never be trivialised or turned into a game.
I call upon Sony Interactive Entertainment to think again and withdraw this game, or at least remove this scene where a virtual child is put in life-threatening danger. If you don't, real children may suffer.
But Children's Commissioner for England, Anne Longfield, said that whatever the makers' motivations 'it seems to end up in a clumsy, inappropriate and graphic game play that is no more than an unpleasant exploitative way of making money off the back of real suffering'.
Last night, The Video Standards Council, which is responsible for deciding computer game age ratings, refused to say whether or not they would grant it a classification and allow the game to be released.
A spokesman said: 'Any decision to refuse a certificate is not taken lightly and to the extent we consider necessary we are able to consult our advisory panel of leading psychologists and legal experts.'
Sony Interactive Entertainment declined to comment.
http://www./news/article-5140165/Detroit-Human-video-game-branded-repulsive.html
Yes, it's the Daily Mail, but it has a legitmate response from a member of the UK parliament, and the large passage above is from the Childline UK creator. Plus, with this hitting the publics favourite rag, the DM, public discourse will start bringing it up. I've copied a bit more as no one enjoys visiting the DM.
Especially with a headline like this
If PEGI rate it, PEGI rate it, but let's see what pressure Sony face in the UK. UK gamers to need to import from Europe/US? Moral panics around games sometimes catch fire.