Saudi Arabia will ban 47 games in response to two child suicide cases, it was recently revealed.
The Associated Press reports that the Saudi General Commission for Audio-Visual Media has made the bans after a 12-year-old boy and 13-year-old girl took their own lives after playing participating in the Blue Whale Challenge.
The connection between the challenge, a form of extreme cyberbullying, and the 47 video games is not clear, but the bans will be upheld nonetheless.
The full list of banned games includes:
- Agents of Mayhem
- Assassins Creed 2
- Attack on Titan 2
- Bayonetta 2
- Clash of the Titans
- Dante’s Inferno
- Dead Rising 3 Apocalypse Edition
- Deadpool
- Deception IV: The Nightmare Princess
- Deus Ex Mankind Divided
- Devil’s Third
- DmC: Definitive Edition
- Dragon Age: Inquisition
- Dragon’s Dogma: Dark Arisen
- Draw to Death
- Final Fantasy Dissidia
- Fist of the North Star: Ken’s Rage 2
- God of War 1
- God of War 2
- God of War 3
- Grand Theft Auto V
- Heavy Rain
- Hitman: Absolution (2012)
- Life is Strange
- Mafia 2
- Mafia 3
- Metro Redux
- Okami
- One Piece Burning Blood
- Past Cure
- Prison Architect
- Resident Evil 5
- Resident Evil 6
- Saints Row IV
- SplatterHouse
- Street Fighter V
- Street Fighter 30th Anniversary
- The Order 1886
- The Saboteur
- The Witcher 3
- The Nonary Game
- Thief
- Vampyr
- Watch Dogs
- Wolfenstein 2
- Wolfenstein: The New Order
- YO-KAI WATCH
Things get a bit hazy here; while the Saudi General Commission for Audio-Visual Media’s website says the list of banned games was published on 2 July, the AP reports that the list was only published last week.
The Blue Whale Challenge has been traced back as far as 2013. In May 2017, the BBC reported that one of the challenge’s alleged creators was apprehended and pleaded guilty to inciting 15 teenage deaths. The creator said he was “cleansing society” of “biological waste” through the challenge. According to The Moscow Times, he was sentenced to three years in prison after being found guilty of inciting the suicides of a 16-year-old girl and a 17-year-old girl.
Should you need to speak to someone in regards to suicide prevention in Australia, please call Lifeline on 13 11 14.
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