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.

Comments

any excuse will do

[Revek]

Backwards thinking people will look for any excuse to justify their lousy attitude.

Why can't we ban Saudi Arabia?

[Snotnose]

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".

Re:Blue whale?!?

[alvinrod]

It's just another fake societal panic that everyone is sure is real for some stupid reason, probably because the news keeps brining it up to sensationalize otherwise mundane stories. I remember when it used to be Dungeons & Dragons being evil and then daycares practicing satanic rituals and abusing children. After that it was rainbow parties (sucks that those weren't actually real) and other idiotic stuff like kids getting high on their own fermented feces and urine.

I don't know why the Saudis banned video games since Blue Whale has nothing to do with video games, but they were part of another big panic in the 90's (remember Jack Thompson) where everyone was sure violent video games would turn little Billy into a killer. Maybe they're still hung up on that one as well.

Re:Blue whale?!?

[fuzzyfuzzyfungus]

Of course not! It's not as though growing up in a theocratic dystopia could possibly be causing the problem; so it must be interwebs games.

Nobody did

[rsilvergun]

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.