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Saudi Arabia Bans 47 Games In Response To Two Child Suicides (ign.com)

Posted by BeauHD on from the something-to-blame dept.

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.

41 of 98 comments (clear)

  1. any excuse will do by Revek · · Score: 4, Insightful

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

    1. Re:any excuse will do by wtrmute · · Score: 1

      Okami is advertisement for Amaterasu, who is a dirty Pagan demoness, so obviously the Wahhabists are going to look at it as a step worse than Saints' Row or GTA, which merely glorify sociopathy and violence. At least the latter two games allow the clerics to point their fingers at the "decadence" of the infidel Westerners (while carefully pretending not to see the staunch alliance of their king with them).

    2. Re:any excuse will do by wtrmute · · Score: 1

      It beats the hell out of getting depressed by the news...

  2. Blue whale?!? by jawtheshark · · Score: 1

    I thought Blue Whale was an urban legend?!?

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    1. Re:Blue whale?!? by sexconker · · Score: 1

      It is. And even the Wikipedia link in TFS says that's it's bullshit.

    2. Re:Blue whale?!? by alvinrod · · Score: 3, Insightful

      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.

    3. Re:Blue whale?!? by fuzzyfuzzyfungus · · Score: 4, Insightful

      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.

    4. Re:Blue whale?!? by nitehawk214 · · Score: 1

      The sad part is that the kinds of bullying that "Blue Whale" promotes are encouraged by adults in the "real world" of sports and fraternity hazing and other adult-led or adult-tolerated organizations.. In high schools, faculty encourage bullying as a way to maintain social order mostly through inaction.

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    5. Re:Blue whale?!? by Daralantan · · Score: 1

      I remember when it used to be Dungeons & Dragons being evil and then daycares practicing satanic rituals and abusing children.

      At least those days produced wonderful "articles" by unintentionally hilarious companies like Chick Publications.

      One of my favorites was the article where the guy claimed he was something like..... "An Alexandrian priest heavily involved in the worship of Satan," and that TSR came and took detailed notes so they could make sure D&D's Satanic rituals were as accurate as possible.

  3. Trolling: Most Extreme Edition by Rick+Schumann · · Score: 1

    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. :-(

    1. Re:Trolling: Most Extreme Edition by sexconker · · Score: 1

      Keep in mind how stupid the media and children are.

      The Tide Pod Challenge was a joke until the media sensationalized it and pretended it was a real thing. THEN it became a real thing.

    2. Re: Trolling: Most Extreme Edition by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      Actually, the Tide Pod Challenge was an outgrowth of accidents with said detergent packs that only gets blamed on the media because of the idiots who think they didn't come up with the dumbest shit without help.

      Then again, these idiots were snorting laundry detergent and mothballs for decades already.

      Probably a problem for cavemen parents too. Somebody had to be the first person to eat a rock.

    3. Re:Trolling: Most Extreme Edition by Plus1Entropy · · Score: 1

      Nah. What's really disturbing is adults actually believing that children are falling for this, when there is not a single confirmed case of it.

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    4. Re: Trolling: Most Extreme Edition by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      ... Probably a problem for cavemen parents too. Somebody had to be the first person to eat a rock.

      That's not paleo? what?

  4. Just ban stupidity by kencurry · · Score: 1

    Would be better, no?

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    1. Re:Just ban stupidity by PPH · · Score: 1

      Theocracies depend on stupidity. We could teach our kids critical thinking skills. But then this would be the end of religious authority.

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  5. Some of these make no sense by FFOMelchior · · Score: 1

    Okami, Yo-Kai Watch, Prison Architect, The Nonary Game... what the hell?

    1. Re:Some of these make no sense by Dutch+Gun · · Score: 2

      Banning videogames like this makes no sense to begin with, so looking for logic there is your first mistake. Maybe it's just the list of games the kids had played. Better safe than sorry, right? Ban em all!

      Oh, and certainly don't investigate this case more deeply, looking for anything like abuse, bullying, or an actual trigger for the suicide. That might embarrass someone important.

      --
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    2. Re:Some of these make no sense by Kaenneth · · Score: 1

      http://prison-architect.wikia....

  6. Why can't we ban Saudi Arabia? by Snotnose · · Score: 4, Insightful

    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".

    1. Re:Why can't we ban Saudi Arabia? by skam240 · · Score: 1

      Finally watched your video link. You watch this garbage? Sure, the gus has a British accent which sounds intellectual to many of us Americans but he drops the word "fuck" like a 13 year old trying to prove something. I couldn't take this guy seriously even if what he was saying wasn't rubbish.

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    2. Re:Why can't we ban Saudi Arabia? by skam240 · · Score: 1

      "It's all backed up with references"

      References are certainly nice but they don't make something true. I'm sure if I cherry picked the right references I could "prove" that the Nazi's won WWII.

      "and what's more, it makes sense"

      No it doesn't at all. The Clinton foundation conspiracy theories all rely on the foolish assumption that the Clinton's have some how managed to consolidate a completely unprecedented amount of political power under themselves, meanwhile Hillary can't even carry Pennsylvania in a presidential election against a reality TV star and is now largely irrelevant in the context of politics.

      "What's the amazing prize that we win in Syria? Why's it so damn important?"

      The most obvious answer to your question is not some conspiracy about the Clinton Foundation and a lame duck plan for a pipeline that barely stood a chance in hell of being adopted. It's that Syria has been an adversary of the US since the Clinton's were children and is allied to even more significant adversaries of the US (Russia's only Mediterranean Naval base is in Syria for instance). The US has a long history of using turmoil in country's we're not fond of as an excuse for sponsoring regime change and have funded all sorts of unsavory groups to do so over the years. We literally just did this in Libya only a few years ago and there have been no plans for pipelines through that country that I've ever heard of.

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    3. Re:Why can't we ban Saudi Arabia? by skam240 · · Score: 1

      "Syria wasn't an adversary of America."

      I'm not trying to insult you here but you're either being willfully ignorant or you don't know your modern Middle Eastern history very well. Syria has indeed been an adversarial nation to the US for decades. Russia's naval base in Syria was built by the Soviets in the early 70's and cemented them into the Soviet sphere in terms of the global order of the time. The naval base in Syria was essential to the Soviet positioning of it's 5th Operational Squadron in the Mediterranean to counter the US' 6th fleet based out of Italy. This base allowed the Soviets to open up a new potential front in the Mediterranean in the event war broke out between them and the West.

      Syria also quickly found common ground with Iran following the 79' revolution and built up an alliance from there. Much of the common ground revolved around them being antagonistic to US interests and allies with neither country recognizing (staunch US ally) Israel's statehood and both were enemies of Saddam in Iraq who was also a US ally until he was dumb enough to invade Kuwait.

      "Everyone expected her to win, so they wanted to be on the right side. So they became donors."

      Taking donations does not in any way, shape, or form equal corruption as long as the donations are legal.

      After that you ramble into conspiracy nonsense and I now have a sense of who I am talking to (something I was suspecting after watching that youtube video with the Brit swearing like he's 13 and trying to fool everyone into thinking he's an adult with adult opinions). Hillary was not going to "open the flood gates" to illegal immigrants and there is no hard evidence of such plans. Furthermore, doing this would have been political suicide for the Democratic party as a whole and for her as well as native voters would have fled the party in mass.

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  7. Not the reason. by Patent+Lover · · Score: 1

    The real reason is that women are now driving and oil prices were down for a bit.

  8. Forward Thinking by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

    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.

  9. No, they didn't. by Pluvius · · Score: 4, Informative

    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

    1. Re:No, they didn't. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      Comparing the banning of computer games to other countries that also ban computer games is perfectly valid. Any inference made between the two nations system of governmnet exists purely between your ears.

    2. Re:No, they didn't. by 1_brown_mouse · · Score: 1

      Wish I could mod you up. This is more noise that is genuinely "fake news."

  10. Nobody did by rsilvergun · · Score: 5, Insightful

    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.

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  11. fakenews shareware by nazsco · · Score: 1

    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.

    1. Re:fakenews shareware by sabbede · · Score: 1
      You think that's bad, the Wikipedia page linked at "Also called the Blue Whale Challenge" has this to say:

      "In the United States, one site, also called the "Blue Whale Challenge", does not identify as an effort to combat the game, but offers fifty days of challenges that promote mental health and well-being."

      So they really blew it with this article.

  12. Re:Hanging a traitor will do. by Revek · · Score: 1

    Sorry AC. I didn't vote donnie two scoops.

  13. Re: Hanging a traitor will do. by Revek · · Score: 1

    Clean the basement and stop abusing you're socks.

  14. YO-KAI WATCH by Darkling-MHCN · · Score: 1

    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...

  15. Let's get rid of all sucide by Evtim · · Score: 1

    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!

  16. Re:Whoa!!! The Nu-Millenial RECTUM Challange ??? by f3rret · · Score: 1

    Only way to truely enjoy coffee.

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  17. This is why by Chrisq · · Score: 1

    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

  18. Why these games? by sabbede · · Score: 1

    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.

  19. Nice Conspiracy Theory by skam240 · · Score: 1

    "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?

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  20. Philipp Budeiki by Martin+S. · · Score: 1

    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/...

  21. Journalism... by koaschten · · Score: 1

    ... 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...