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Saudi Arabia Bans 47 Games In Response To Two Child Suicides (ign.com)
An anonymous reader quotes a report from IGN: Saudi Arabia is apparently banning 47 games in response to a pair of children committing suicide after allegedly being encouraged to do so while playing an online game. Per the Associated Press, the Saudi General Commission for Audio-Visual Media said yesterday that a 13-year-old girl and a 12-year-old boy have taken their own lives after playing a social media game known as Blue Whale. Also called the Blue Whale Challenge, the disturbing social media phenomenon is a form of extreme cyberbullying. It's not clear how the Saudi government believes this connects to more mainstream video games, but it nonetheless appears to have banned 47 popular indie and AAA games in response.The Saudi General Commission for Audio-Visual Media's website actually says the list of banned games was last updated on July 2, but the Associated Press' report claims the bans were just announced Monday.
Backwards thinking people will look for any excuse to justify their lousy attitude.
I thought Blue Whale was an urban legend?!?
Ahhh...the great dumpster continuum. Many a free computer will be found there. -- sowth (748135)
I'm not sure which is more disturbing, that anyone would create a 'game' like this in the first place, or that there's anyone, even children, who would fall for it. :-(
I understand banning Yo-Kai Watch, but what's the deal with the other games on the list!?!?
Would be better, no?
sigs are for losers (except to point out that sigs are for losers)
Okami, Yo-Kai Watch, Prison Architect, The Nonary Game... what the hell?
!. LITERRALLY BUy a STARBUCS Mocha Choco Chomo Frou-Frou Latte
2. Literaly put the cofe UP YOUR ASS
3. Racord yourself saying "Im literrally literraling"
4. Die like a bitch
This shyttt is dope AF kydd! What!
My bad. This backwards country has oil we need. So they're good, all good. Swallow your vomit and repeat after me: "Saudi Arabia is our friend".
The real reason is that women are now driving and oil prices were down for a bit.
LOL
I salute Saudi Arabia and its forward thinking policies. We need more countries willing to take difficult decisions when it comes to combating social interactions that drive people to suicide. It is very clear that social pressures can be made very intense not only by peers locally or online but most of all by older and authoritative figures in society. It is for this reason, I am certain Saudi Arabia's next step to ban Islam. The call to violence by the dogmatic of any religion or belief system is no laughing matter, and I eagerly await Saudi Arabia's swift action to battle the scourge that is the threat of death and destruction set forth by so-called holy books and its followers.
https://twitter.com/malekawt/s...
These games, or at least most of them, were already banned by Saudi Arabia for various reasons just like other countries like Australia ban games. This specific news event had nothing to do with it. Just the media getting shit wrong again as usual.
Rob
read the Wikipedia article. The "game" is just a moral panic in Russia. Remember Judas Priest Albums? The Satanic Panic and all that.
Somebody in Saudi Arabia wanted to crack down on video games, probably because they're helping to secularize their society and there's lots of very wealthy and powerful men who don't want that. That's all this is.
Hi! I make Firefox Plug-ins. Check 'em out @ https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/youtube-mp3-podcaster/
Yes. Stop whining. Life doesn't revolve around your political mental problems.
blue whale was nothing but a free demo from whoever is selling fake news as a service.
It was a way to prove it worked for maybe a big client. That's why it spread so well and is so idiotic and completely baseless. 100% of the reports goes back to one single made-up tabloid article in russia.
Trump's life will revolve around a prison toilet, you treasonous faggot bitch. I'd kill you where you stand.
Well, those camel fuckers (read: terrorist people) love to banning anything eh?...
Sorry AC. I didn't vote donnie two scoops.
Clean the basement and stop abusing you're socks.
I saw those drifting videos. Saudis feel the need for speed.
NO grand theft auto 5. Well damn
Such a good thing we trade and sell weapons with those enemies of democracy called The Kingdom.
Fuck the House of Saud and all who bow before it.
Learn you're from your, Ivan.
I looked at the list of titles as a list of games I probably need to check out... The last on the list Yo-kai watch... man oh man... that looks like pretty subversive stuff...
https://www.google.com.au/sear...
When video-games 'caused' high-school massacres, teen-aged players were interrogated and vilified by teachers. When it causes self-harm and suicide, the response is a strongly-worded message.
Looking at the PCA analysis of suicide, several risk factors can be identified that increase the rate. So, in order to bring the rate to practically zero we need to make sure that all people on Earth are:
not very intelligent
peasants
with big families
religious
poor
at war
Careful what you wish for!
"but the Associated Press' report claims the bans were just announced Monday."
That's because the AP is full of shit and wont admit they got it wrong, and as it's the AP other media outlets will report it verbatim, then it will get a wikipedia write-up and become fact.
Saudi Arabia Bans 47 Games In Response To Two Child Suicides
... because the games didn't encourage them to bomb the infidels while they were about it
...it's definitely the fault of video games. Definitely not the fact they're females living in a veritable paradise like Saudi Arabia.
No sirée!
many democrats and republicans love the idea, blame any external factors for some ill in society. They should all move to Saudi Arabia and rejoice.
Would any God fearing patroit roll over as long as a liar and traitor were in office?
Both candidates are liars and traitors. We were put in a lose/lose situation. It's time to stop complaining about whether Trump or Hillary won. We need to find a way to fix the real problem.
captcha = absinthe
One would think that multiplayer games would be in their sights if social-media-induced-suicide had anything to do with their motivation, but single player only games are listed as well. Like The Witcher 3.
IGN just posted an update saying that the father of the suicide victim has retracted his claim that "Blue Whale" was involved.
Blue Whale isn't an app or a console game. It is more like D&D with a primary person calling all the shots. The leader doesn't die in the end.
"The Syrian civil war? We're involved in that because before the Syrian civil war, two pipelines were proposed..."
Nice lengthy conspiracy theory but Syria was regarded as a country antagonistic to the US for decades prior to the planning of these pipelines. The much simpler and more logical answer is the US saw the turmoil happening in Syria as an opportunity to get rid of an ally of two of our most significant adversaries, Russia and Iran.
This Clinton Foundation shit just sounds ludicrous. I mean, if Hillary and the Clinton foundation are such puppet masters how did she lose an election to a hack like Trump?
I ignore Anonymous Coward posts. If you want to discuss something, that's awesome. Log in.
While there is some hysteria surrounding this and the fact it is unfathomable doesn't mean it doesn't happen.
There will always psychopaths that will seek to exploit these things for their own sick reasons.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/newsbeat/...
We were being fair. You aren't. You just used the "Fine people on both sides" argument. Fuck you. The only people who give me shit about being gay, the only people who scream at me to die, the only people to vandalize my property, are fucking xstians. (I wrote it that way on purp. I hear they hate that shit so fuck em). Care to guess if I perceive a total lack of support? I won't be killing myself tho...
... should work at their best to inform the reader, then WHY are they linking to the arabian version of the Age Classification instead of the english? en: http://www.gcam.gov.sa/en/Abou... vs ar: http://www.gcam.gov.sa/ar/Abou... Also what would Deadpool think about being on the list of banned games...