Opposition to the Grand Theft Auto series makes strange bedfellows...
...like the Sex Workers Outreach Project (SWOP) and Dr. David Walsh of the National Institute on Media & Family (NIMF).
SWOP has a statement concerning GTA on its website, which reads, in part:
"...in the interest of furthering sex workers' human and civil rights to life and personal safety, we object to any media which represents sex workers as legitimate targets of violence, rape and murder. Censorship is a blight on the freedoms we hold dear but we wholeheartedly encourage citizens to vote with their dollars by refusing to purchase products which encourage the denigration and destruction of prostitutes. Since the video game Grand Theft Auto accrues points to players for the depiction of the rape and murder of prostitutes, SWOP-USA calls on all parents and all gamers to boycott Grand Theft Auto."
The SWOP statement cites a 2001 NIMF research report which, among other conclusions, says, "...(there is) a strong correlation between exposure to violent video games and various forms of antisocial behavior."
GP: If anyone has a right to be heard on this issue, it is the hookers themselves. Real-life prostitutes are often regarded as non-persons and have been frequently targeted by freaks and even serial killers.
Big thanks to GP reader Nature Leseul for alerting us to this story.
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gamepolitics) wrote,
Opposition to the Grand Theft Auto series makes strange bedfellows...
