The UK's Video Standards Council Rating Board has refused to issue a UK Certificate of Classification (archive) for the JRPG game Omega Labyrinth Z, due to it "clearly [promoting] the sexualisation of children". The publisher's appeal of the decision was rejected. This is the first game to be banned in the UK since Manhunt 2, which was initially refused classification by the British Board of Film Classification, but eventually classified "18" after censorship, a second refusal, and an appeal.:
The game is explicit in its setting within a "school" environment and the majority of the characters are young girls - one child is referred to as being a "first year" student and is seen holding a teddy bear. The game clearly promotes the sexualisation of children via the sexual interaction between the game player and the female characters. The style of the game is such that it will attract an audience below the age of 18.
There is a serious danger that impressionable people, i.e. children and young people viewing the game would conclude that the sexual activity represented normal sexual behaviour. There is a constant theme of sexual innuendo and activity throughout the game that suggests behaviour likely to normalise sexual activity towards children. As a means of reward gained by successfully navigating the game, the player has the means to sexually stimulate the female characters by using either a hand held remote device or touch screen software.
The VSC Rating Board believes this content in a game, which would have strong appeal to non-adult players, is an issue which would be unacceptable to the majority of UK consumers and, more importantly, has the potential to be significantly harmful in terms of the social and moral development of younger people in particular.
Omega Labyrinth Z was released in Japan on July 6, 2017 for the PlayStation Vita and PS4 platforms, and will be released in North America and Europe in early 2018. The game was also refused classification in Australia and Germany, and will not be released in New Zealand or Ireland.
The UK's Digital Economy Act 2010 shifted responsibility for classifying most video games from the British Board of Film Classification to the Video Standards Council.
In unrelated news, Luigi may or may not have a penis.
Also at BBC, Gamasutra, and Kotaku.
(Score: -1, Troll) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday March 17 2018, @10:32PM (3 children)
np
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday March 17 2018, @10:38PM (2 children)
But we aren't allowed to virtually get ours?
(Go read up on Parliament sex crimes sometime.)
(Score: 0, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday March 17 2018, @11:01PM (1 child)
The misdeeds of others do not mean you should be permitted to commit similarly reprehensible behavior.
(Score: 1, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday March 17 2018, @11:05PM
*virtually/imaginarily reprehensible behavior
(Score: 1) by tftp on Saturday March 17 2018, @10:37PM
In the beginning of each round of the game the player has to solve a small challenge from mathematical analysis. An integral, a differential equation... perhaps with a recorded lecture on the subject.
(Score: 3, Insightful) by Entropy on Saturday March 17 2018, @10:41PM (1 child)
Import hundreds of thousands of people that enjoy sometimes forced child rape... Yep, good plan for Sadiq's London.
(Score: 3, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday March 17 2018, @11:05PM
And then actively engage in coverups [dailymail.co.uk] after it happens. [telegraph.co.uk]
(Score: 1, Touché) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday March 17 2018, @10:46PM (1 child)
kids watching road runner might think they can run off a cliff as long as they don't look down
(Score: 2) by takyon on Saturday March 17 2018, @10:54PM
Charles Darwin. Great Brit.
[SIG] 10/28/2017: Soylent Upgrade v14 [soylentnews.org]
(Score: 5, Interesting) by cocaine overdose on Saturday March 17 2018, @11:08PM (10 children)
In looking through Omega Labyrinth Z pictures and videos, I was expecting this game to be a PS4-sponsored hentai JRPG. What I got was the equivalent of Honey Pop without any sex scenes. The game can't even be called sexual, unless you have a fetish for low-polygon chibis (though, I know the FBI cracked down on one of the 2D 16x16 pixel-art multiplayer-online child rape simulators I was aware of). The only sexual content is your run of the mill Japanese fetishisation of high schoolers -- in the few pictures in the game. Maybe big giant titties are inherently sexual?
Idk, UK. First you tell me children are inherently unable to have the maturity to make sexual decisions, then you go at me with the "but, if they get exposed to this game they might be." Seems like someone's worried their perfect little Johnnies and Sallies will get some no-no thoughts, and we can't have that can we? Sarcasm aside, who cares. Either way, nothing's changed.
Xbox Live had hentai visual novels on their indie store that I fondly remember masturbating to the thighs of a slime girl. Perhaps, the U.K. is right. We wouldn't want our children growing up to sexual deviants. Ah, whatever. People are retarded.
(Score: 1, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday March 17 2018, @11:15PM (5 children)
It's fine. People can still easily download the game online. Apparently, these retards have never heard of the Streisand effect.
The US seems overall okay when it comes to freedom of speech when compared to countries like the UK, or perhaps even all other countries. It's sad that the bar is so low.
(Score: 1, Flamebait) by JoeMerchant on Saturday March 17 2018, @11:40PM (4 children)
Might have been a bit different if we had let Tipper Gore live in the White House.
🌻🌻 [google.com]
(Score: 1, Redundant) by PartTimeZombie on Sunday March 18 2018, @11:31PM (3 children)
I don't know, you guys let the hilariously awful Nancy Reagan live there, and liked it so much you asked her back, along with that half wit husband of hers.
Tipper seemed almost human in comparison.
(Score: 3, Interesting) by JoeMerchant on Monday March 19 2018, @12:58AM (2 children)
Tipper's from my ancestral home of Eastern Tennessee - ultra-conservative Baptist roots, she wanted to make sure the "F-word" and all the other words that go with it were minimized out of children's ears by whatever methods would achieve that goal, including censorship.
Nancy was relatively agenda-less by comparison.
🌻🌻 [google.com]
(Score: 2) by PartTimeZombie on Monday March 19 2018, @01:13AM (1 child)
I have no doubt tipper is ultra consevative, because even the most liberal of American politicians are by the civilised world's standards, but Nancy was a long way from agenda-less.
Ignoring AIDs because only gay people got it, and "Just Say No" to drugs being two of her worst ideas, but she also ran the White House according to the dictates of her Astrologer.
Total weirdo.
(Score: 2) by JoeMerchant on Monday March 19 2018, @03:29AM
I'll grant you "Just say no to drugs" was/is as idiotic as the drug war, but I've always viewed that as a simple puppet act - pretty much how I viewed all 8 years of Reagan's administration - the 4 of Bush Sr. seemed to be a bit more personally led, but Ronnie was an actor, he read his lines and stayed on script the whole time as far as I can tell. I hated them all at the time for making me choose: don't want to sign up for selective service? Well, then we won't be backing your student loans and you can just drop out of college - and all the saber rattling against the USSR seemed like un-necessary brinksmanship, but it paid off in 1989 - I may have disagreed with the methods, but I think the results were net positive.
🌻🌻 [google.com]
(Score: 2) by JoeMerchant on Saturday March 17 2018, @11:31PM (3 children)
Sounds to me like the Victorians know what good, healthy sex is, they're just not teaching the children directly and they are worried that their instruction by psionic projection is going to be overwhelmed by something more directly perceptible by the children.
🌻🌻 [google.com]
(Score: -1, Troll) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday March 18 2018, @12:16AM (2 children)
https://is.gd/zSsmUZ [is.gd]
You realize you are condoning rape of children right?
(Score: -1, Troll) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday March 18 2018, @12:43AM
You can't rape the willing.
(Score: 2) by cocaine overdose on Sunday March 18 2018, @12:51AM
(Score: 1, Troll) by Captival on Saturday March 17 2018, @11:42PM (5 children)
Trump is still exactly like Hitler because he thinks video games may influence violent behavior.
Please counter this statement and prove how intellectually superior you are via the "I played games and haven't murdered anyone" argument.
(Score: 2, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday March 18 2018, @12:07AM
Both Trump and the UK are simply incorrect. I don't think you even had a point.
Or how about we just point out that there is no good scientific evidence that demonstrates a link between violence/aggression in real life and video games. There are just too many factors involved. No need for silly anecdotal evidence, especially when the other side relies on pseudoscience (or gut feelings).
(Score: 3, Funny) by unauthorized on Sunday March 18 2018, @03:20AM
So, Hitler thought that video games may influence violent behavior? Before video games were invented? Mein gott, Illuminati confirmed!
(Score: 3, Insightful) by maxwell demon on Sunday March 18 2018, @09:33AM
I'm going to counter that statement, but not through the route you want, sorry.
Indeed, the statement is wrong for the simple reason that Hitler did not know video games. And if he had known them and thought that it influenced violence, I'm sure he would have promoted their use; after all, a lot of his politics aimed at the militarization of the youth (so that they would make willing soldiers for his wars).
The Tao of math: The numbers you can count are not the real numbers.
(Score: 2) by MichaelDavidCrawford on Sunday March 18 2018, @10:10AM
I am mentally ill yet never shot anyone.
I even get paranoid sometimes.
Sometimes I even hallucinate.
And I even possess an Idaho State Gun Safety Card. I am very proud to have it.
And I _AM_ A Proud American!
Yet I Do Not Possess Any Guns.
Put THAT in your soundbite and smoke it.
Yes I Have No Bananas. [gofundme.com]
(Score: 2) by DannyB on Monday March 19 2018, @01:22PM
I played extremely violent games, such as Frogger, and Galaga, and haven't killed anyone . . . yet.
To transfer files: right-click on file, pick Copy. Unplug mouse, plug mouse into other computer. Right-click, paste.
(Score: 2) by wisnoskij on Sunday March 18 2018, @12:18AM (3 children)
Wait, so their only objection to pedophilia is that some children might see it? If only we had some system to keep children from playing said game then it would be absolutely fine to release it?
(Score: 2) by wonkey_monkey on Sunday March 18 2018, @12:34AM
No, that's not the only objection.
systemd is Roko's Basilisk
(Score: 4, Informative) by maxwell demon on Sunday March 18 2018, @09:42AM (1 child)
Objection to pedophilia makes about as much sense as objection to schizophrenia. Instead object to child molestation (no matter whether the molester was pedophile or not; note that child molesters are not necessarily pedophiles. [vice.com])
The Tao of math: The numbers you can count are not the real numbers.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday March 18 2018, @11:09AM
Foot fetishists? You funny foreigners and your inability to spell...
(Score: 2) by MichaelDavidCrawford on Sunday March 18 2018, @10:08AM
During the early days of the Dot-Com Boom, I read in the San Francisco Chronicle that child pornography had just been outlawed in Japan.
To be clear: up until then it was legal.
That it was outlawed was the result of a public outcry among people in other countries that resulted from Japanese CP being readily available on the World Wide Web.
Portland's Paris Adult Theater used to show Hentai late Sunday nights. While I patronized the Paris for its live-action fare, I stuck around for the Hentai a couple times.
That stuff is twisted.
I once read at the Green Site that some guy got arrested for CP Possession when he tried to cross the border into Canada because he had some Manga in his luggage. The USA's CP laws - at least at one time - require the C's in CP to be real children. Thus - at least at one time - "Creative Works" are legal if they are "Created" by shopping adult models so that they look like C's.
Yes I Have No Bananas. [gofundme.com]
(Score: 2, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday March 18 2018, @11:28AM (1 child)
Speaking as a resident of Japan, after a glance at the game's Wikipedia page linked in TFS... Bwahaha. That amount of "sexualized" content is controversial? I'm not even talking about the adult, 18+ rated stuff, I've seen worse (... better?) in comics and games aimed at ages 12 and up. [wikipedia.org]
It's sad when people are unable to distinguish reality and god-damn cartoons.
(Score: 2) by HiThere on Sunday March 18 2018, @05:35PM
It's quite normal for new media to be more highly censored than older media. I haven't looked at either so I can't comment directly, but your surprise is unwarranted. Those who are afraid of the new will often have other prejudices reinforced when they contact it.
Javascript is what you use to allow unknown third parties to run software you have no idea about on your computer.
(Score: 2) by J_Darnley on Sunday March 18 2018, @11:55PM
> "clearly [promoting] the sexualisation of children"
That is reserved solely for the elites in Britain: The BBC, politicians, and some others.