Another country has introduced a ban on select video games for their ‘negative influence’ on children.
The argument that video games make people violent is almost as old as video games themselves. It feels like every year or so we get another report analysing the subject (often disproving the idea that they’re a negative influence) or a politician calling for a ban. Just last year, Brazil’s president Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva asserted video games were ‘teaching kids to kill.’
Whether you agree or not, it doesn’t change the fact that a number of countries outright forbid the sale of certain games because of their violent content, such as the Mortal Kombat series.
Most recently, the country of Tajikistan (located in Central Asia) announced a ban on both the Grand Theft Auto series and Valve’s Counter-Strike games, alleging it’s because they’re encouraging criminal activity.
The Dushanbe Department of Internal Affairs (Dushanbe is the capital city) dropped the news over the weekend via Telegram, adding that Dushanbe police will start conducting raids on any retailers suspected of selling the aforementioned games.
A statement from the ministry (as translated by The Record) claims the likes of GTA and Counter-Strike ‘promote killing, theft, and violence’ and that ‘young people and teenagers who regularly play these games come under their negative influence and commit various crimes.’ It’s so far unclear if any other video games will be similarly affected.
It’s easy to understand why some feel GTA glorifies violence, considering players typically control criminals and thieves, and there have been instances of the games being blamed for causing real world crimes. For example, the series has been banned in Thailand since 2008, believing it had influenced an 18-year-old student’s murder of a taxi driver (via the BBC).
As for Counter-Strike and its 2023 sequel, both of them are first person shooters that see one team play as terrorists with the goal of planting bombs and/or killing the opposing team. However, the original game has only ever been banned once for its use of violence and that was in Brazil back in 2008. Said ban was lifted the following year (via G1).
Ironically, it may be gaming’s ever-growing popularity that the biggest titles are coming under much more scrutiny recently, especially in terms how children are interacting with them. For years, there have been concerns of kids developing gambling addictions thanks to loot boxes, with Belgium banning any such games that contain them.
This year, a damning report on Roblox accused the platform of being extremely unsafe for minors, and this was after Turkey already banned Roblox due to concerns of child exploitation.
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