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MP calls for rape game to be banned
Benedict Moore-Bridger25.02.09
A senior Labour MP today said he was "appalled" that a computer game that allows players to simulate stalking and raping women and children on the subway was available for sale on the internet.
Home Affairs select committee chairman Keith Vaz hit out at Japanese game RapeLay in which players can also enter a "freedom mode" where they can attack other women and get other male characters to join in.
The game was offered for sale until recently by online retailer Amazon.com but has now been withdrawn.
It was developed by the firm Illusion, which makes a number of sexually violent games for the Japanese market.
Mr Vaz, who campaigns against violent computer games, called on the Government to ban it from sale to UK players over the internet.
In a Commons motion, he said he was "appalled that a video game that simulates rape has been readily available for sale on the internet".
He welcomed the decision by Amazon to withdraw the game.
Reader views (5)
Further adding to Mk's points, the game itself is almost three years old. The people who would buy the game have already bought it, so this law is useless.
- Abs, Derbyshire, UK
@Smb: Grow up. Game developers, and indeed gamers, are normal human beings like yourself, with active social lives and familes. Quit living your whole life in your pathetic litle outdated stereotypes.
@Everyone else: let's get a little perspective here. This is one game by an incredibly niche Japanese developer, made available through Amazon USA's user marketplace by an independent member of the public and not on general release anywhere in the world. There is also reams and reams of evidence that games don't have an effect on the way people act. Keith Vaz needs to start looking at real problems, and the newpapers really should be calling politicians out for wasting government time. The Standard should be ashamed of themselves for this failure of journlaism.
- Mk, North West
Shocking that such a game has been created.
- Sharon, London
The people who make these games are sick!
- Wa, Oxfordshire, UK
These game developers truly need to get more fresh air, and quit living their whole lives in cyber world where consequences have no action except to damage your score.
- Smb, London, UK
