Call To Ban 'child porn' game

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"ELECTRONICS giant Sony has been slammed by childhood experts for selling a computer game featuring a young girl wearing suspenders and carrying a teddy bear.

Television advertisements for the adventure video game – Tekken: Dark Destruction – were banned last month by the Advertising Standards Bureau because they "strongly sexualised the image of a child".
Now childhood experts want the game – sold for $75 at major retail outlets across Australia – taken off the shelves.

"There is no justification for a character like this – a scantily-clad youngster holding a teddy bear – because children should never be perceived as a target of sexual fantasy," Australian Childhood Foundation CEO Joe Tucci said.

"I'm sure all parents would be appalled at this character and if Sony doesn't withdraw the game from sale, parents should boycott it."

The Australia Institute – which recently ignited debate over sexualisation of children with the discussion paper Corporate Pedophilia – said the character of Lili bordered on child pornography.

"I suspect these images provide sexual gratification for pedophiles and if Sony does not withdraw the product, I think it wouldn't be a bad idea to ban it from sale," said Dr Emma Rush of The Australia Institute.

"The question which has to be asked is why is there a need for a teddy bear to be associated with a scantily-clad young girl?"

State Attorney-General Michael Atkinson said he was concerned about Lili's appearance and ordered an urgent review of the game's content.

"The Attorney-General's Office will investigate the level of inappropriate content in the game and if necessary refer it back to the Office of Film and Literature for reclassification," a spokesman for Mr Atkinson said.

But Young Media Australia president Jane Roberts said the game's classification rating of M – not recommended for children aged under 15 – was irrelevant to the use of scantily-clad, teddy bear-hugging Lili.

"Regardless of the age of the game player, this character is totally inappropriate because most people in the community would be against sexualising children," she said.

"Children get a perception of how they should look from these types of images and this can have a very negative impact on their physical and mental wellbeing at an age when they should just enjoy being children."

Sony Computer Entertainment Australia said while it distributed the game, it was designed by Japanese firm NAMCO.

"I feel very confident we would never profit from the sexualisation of children," Sony spokesman Adrian Christie said.

"But we are not developers of the game and don't have contact with the developers regarding the age of Lili or (in) what context the teddy bear is used."

The Office of Film and Literature Classification was not available for comment."

Never did like Tekken anyway. Makes you wonder, though....

Never did like Sony.

I hate the Tekken series.

BS! I'd like to see this lili for myself and judge whether she's really supposed to be a child.

Here's what Lili looks like:

She looks like a young teen but I guess a high percent of the game
players are teen boys so it maybe not so shocking.

It says she's 16.

Some of these people don't do their research.....

If the OFLC finds a video game offensive in any way, they'll take it off the shelves.

Well that picture isn't her dressed the same as what the complaint article stated so I can't really give an opinion. The writing next to the image posted is Japanese I think so are we to assume it is a Japanese designed game? I've heard complaints about Japanese animation being sexual and depicting violent rape so perhaps this is just the norm for Japan as far as animation and game material goes.

Most video games are made in Japan. The Japanese seem to have a different veiw on sexual oriented characters than people in other countries do.

hmm.

I see nothing wrong.

and as far as legal goes. they do it. and nothing happenes.