Teachers want “bullying” video game banned

Eight teachers’ unions in Canada, the United States, Britain, South Korea, Australia and the Caribbean are urging retailers not to sell a new video game that they say glorifies violence, the Globe and Mail reported.

The focus of their concern is Bully: Scholarship Edition. Developed by Vancouver-based Rockstar Games, it features a teenager who uses harassment as a way of adjusting to life in a boarding school.

According to the Globe and Mail, “The abuse includes dunking pupils’ heads in toilets, photographing them naked and physically assaulting them. Teachers are also targeted.”

“What it does is it encourages kids to target other kids, to be a bully with other kids,” said Emily Noble, president of the Canadian Teachers’ Federation. “This doesn’t help us as teachers in the work that we’re doing at school.”

Noble said they were “asking retailers to be responsible” and desist from “selling games that glorify violence.”

Rockstar spokesman Rodney Walker believes their critics are overreacting. “Video games are not just for children,” he said. “This game happens to be about high school . . . but it’s also one of the funniest games you will play.”

The game is rated for children aged 13 and over.


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