TMCnet News
Rape video games still on saleTOKYO, May 15, 2009 (The Yomiuri Shimbun - McClatchy-Tribune Information Services via COMTEX) -- The uproar over a Japanese video game featuring the rape of two girls and their mother has led to increased calls by the public to more strictly regulate child pornography. Although the sale of the rape game has been suspended in response to a protest from an international human rights organization, a large number of similar games are still on sale across the country. In the computer game, developed and first sold in 2006 by a Yokohama-based game software maker, a player gropes two girls -- who appear to be teenagers -- and their mother while in a subway carriage, then confines and rapes the three, making them pregnant. The player then forces the three to terminate their pregnancies. In the game, the more violence a player uses on the female characters, the more points the player scores. The use of rape in the game led to it being condemned by the British Parliament earlier this year. Following the protest campaign started last week by Equality Now, a New York-based international human rights organization, the maker halted all sales, while Japan-based Amazon.co.jp said it had stopped selling the game in late April. But the protesters have pointed out that the voluntary halting of the sale of this one game is an unsatisfactory outcome. "The problem isn't just about this specific game, but about all similar games still available," said Yukiko Tsunoda, a lawyer and member of Equality Now. Tsunoda pointed out that a large number of similar games are widely distributed in Japan, featuring storylines in which a player repeatedly rapes or is violent toward women. Hiroshi Nakasatomi, a gender studies researcher and associate professor at Fukushima University, said he believed the game in question was chosen as the focus of the protest campaign "because its title includes the word 'rape,' making it possible [for English speakers] to see what the story is about at a glance." The Tokyo-based Ethics Organization of Computer Software, to which 235 computer game makers belong, employs a voluntary screening system for all computer games. If a problem is found during the screening process, the organization is supposed to instruct a game maker to delete or revise the problematic image or storyline. However, the game in question passed the screening without receiving any such instructions. The organization does not reveal its game-screening standards, but "follows the Penal Code and the law, which bans child prostitution and child pornography," an official of the organization said. "Also, we ask for self-regulation of games, to ensure stories depicted stay at a permissible level from a social perspective." However, not only the Yokohama maker's game but other games featuring sexual violence have previously sparked debate. Taking this into account, the official said the industry "should discuss what kind of self-imposed regulations are required to ensure [game products] are acceptable to society." Child pornography has grown as an international problem due to the global spread of the Internet. In other nations, such as Britain and the United States, the production, sale and possession of child pornography--including cartoons and computer-generated images--are banned. Under domestic law, salacious images of children aged less than 18 are considered child pornography, and production and sale of such images is banned. However, such acts are not considered illegal with regard to computer-generated images. "These days, such images, which used to be distributed only through unofficial routes, are openly available on the Internet, so even children can easily access [them]," said Hiromasa Nakai, an official of the Japan Committee for UNICEF who specializes in child pornography-related problems. "As this is no longer just a problem confined to a particular part of the world, we should hold extensive discussions on what kind of regulations should be imposed on such images," Nakai said. To see more of The Yomiuri Shimbun, or to subscribe to the newspaper, go to http://www.yomiuri.co.jp and www.yomiuri.co.jp/index-e.htm Copyright (c) 2009, The Yomiuri Shimbun Distributed by McClatchy-Tribune Information Services. For reprints, email [email protected], call 800-374-7985 or 847-635-6550, send a fax to 847-635-6968, or write to The Permissions Group Inc., 1247 Milwaukee Ave., Suite 303, Glenview, IL 60025, USA. |