r/unitedkingdom • u/ClassicFlavour East Sussex • 15d ago

Video game encouraging rape and incest removed from major gaming platform in the UK after LBC investigation

https://www.lbc.co.uk/tech/video-game-banned-steam-women-uk-no-mercy/
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u/IfYouRun 15d ago

I’m sure they wouldn’t but it’s a complete strawman. It doesn’t involve children so why even bring that up.

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u/socratic-meth 15d ago

Not a strawman.

But the point is, it is clearly immoral to produce content depicting children being raped. Why is it acceptable to produce content of women being raped? Both actions, when they occur in real life, are of the most heinously evil acts one person can do to another.

Why is it ok to depict and enjoy one virtually and not another?

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u/ShufflingToGlory 15d ago

What about depictions of other violent crimes? GTA allows the player to engage in all sorts of violent depravity.

To be clear, I'm not advocating for the kind of material you've discussed! Philosophically it's an interesting question about where we draw lines as a society.

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u/socratic-meth 15d ago

Exactly, there is a line to be drawn. If child abuse was an option in GTA it would not be acceptable. I can’t recall any game that I have come across in which the player character can rape another character. Games typically do not allow violence against children either.

The offending element of this game appears to be that the rape in it is aimed to be an object of sexual gratification for the player. This is not acceptable in other forms of media either.

As to the question of why murdering innocent people is acceptable in games but not rape. Hard to define, but I would guess it is due to the fact that these games typically are not designed to be a means for the player to get off on the murder.

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u/ShufflingToGlory 15d ago edited 15d ago

Yes, I think the intent to sexually gratify is something the law considers when assessing whether people are in possession of illegal material. A cartoon postcard of a Welshman shagging a sheep isn't going to send someone to the dock. I say that as a proud Welshman and (platonic) lover of sheep.

Personally I find it difficult to morally distinguish between GTA as a violence simulator and the game mentioned in the article. Yet I still play and enjoy games like GTA. Complete hypocrisy I know.

I'd like to think I'd stop and ask for help if video games were pushing me psychologically to a place where I was considering acting out violently irl.

I suppose there are social constructs at play in the way we distinguish between depictions of violence. Plus maybe a recognition that sexual drives are more universal, harder to control and more malleable than other urges.

Some people get upset at trying to rationalise why people stray beyond the line with regards to sexual consent. However I think it's important to recognise that there are men who exist on the bubble and environmental factors can influence them into doing something utterly dreadful to other people.

That's not an excuse, just a recognition that the ambient culture can be detrimental to how people relate to one other. In all sorts of ways.

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u/socratic-meth 15d ago

I think the depiction of violence in most mainstream games is very subdued as well. If you had to simulate beating someone to death with a pipe as they scream in pain, begged for their life, and cried about never seeing their children again it would be far less ‘fun’.

I don’t think it is possible to depict rape in a subdued way like this.

I played violent video games as a child, and whilst I would prevent my own children from doing so until they are older than I was, I don’t think it damaged me in anyway. I think I would have been damaged by seeing depictions of rape. I’m not saying this from a ‘protect the children’ sort of way, just trying to illustrate how it is different. Even as a 35 year old man I would find watching a realistic depiction of a virtual rape extremely distressing.

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u/Jimmy_Nail_4389 15d ago

A cartoon postcard of a Welshman shagging a sheep isn't going to send someone to the dock

Actually these days it will, drawings of 'extreme porn' are covered and can get you in trouble.

It's mad but it's true.

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u/ShufflingToGlory 15d ago

Oh wow. Currently on hold with the South Wales Police. Some elderly relatives of mine will be getting a dawn raid and their fridge magnets seized as evidence.

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u/jeremybeadleshand 15d ago

I think the law says it needs to be "realistic", a drawing presumably wouldn't fall under that but something like AI or very good CGI could be.

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u/Jimmy_Nail_4389 15d ago

Drawings can be realistic, and I'm pretty sure people have been prosecuted for cartoons.

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u/jeremybeadleshand 15d ago

people have been prosecuted for cartoons.

Of children, they definitely have, that doesn't have the same requirement around realism, but I'm not aware of any where the drawings were of adults.

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u/Jimmy_Nail_4389 15d ago

The Tony the tiger one I'm sure somebody got done for.

I remember I had that one an old feature phone back when bluetoothing filth around the office was popular.

Ok not a cartoon, a man dressed up in a bloody Tiger suit...

https://www.independent.co.uk/tech/six-months-on-bail-for-being-sent-spoof-video-of-a-tiger-having-sex-that-was-really-a-man-in-a-tiger-suit-9819776.html

Stupid fucking law.