Japan’s Simulated Rape Video Game Sold on Amazon: Virtual Versus Real in the World of Predator Porn

Rapeplay image

For those interested in video games that go for simulated rape of women and young girls, Amazon had just the thing: Rapeplay. Incredibly Amazon didn’t yank the game until complaints from users.

“We determined that we did not want to be selling this particular item,” a spokeswoman said.

Keith Vaz, the Labour MP for Leicester East who has previously spoken out against computer games that promote violence, condemned the game.

“It is intolerable that anyone would purchase a game that simulates the criminal offence of rape,” he said yesterday.
--Sun

So while Amazon “determined” it wouldn’t sell the product only after consumers complained and a British Labour MP has roundly “condemned” the game and those who “purchased” it, the game is still out there being sold in the name of “free speech”.

According to the British tabloid, The Sun, the game allows players to “force their victims into getting abortions”, while at the beginning of the game, players start by “stalking” a mother and her two young daughters, “schoolgirl virgins”, on a train. Players then get points if their victims have abortions.

The game is produced in Japan where the maker, Japanese production house Illusion, has also put out “Battle Raper” and “Artificial Girl”.

Pat, DBKP’s “Man in Paradise”, pointed out that President Obama’s pick for Deputy Attorney General, David Ogden, has ties to promoting porn which may signal to producers of games such as Rapeplay that their “game” is still “on”, at least for “crass” and creepy commercial consumers.

According to the Catholic News Agency, Ogden has some interesting background relating to porn and the promotion of porn on the internet. Ogden has represented both Playboy and Penthouse. Ogden also was involved in opposing the Children’s Internet Act of 2000, the same act that sought to limit children’s access to porn via the worldwide web and the use of animation in child porn.

It’s unclear as to what steps the Obama administration will take in regards to these types of video games, as it’s clear that the previous Bush administration allowed the game to be sold here in the States after the Supreme Court demolished the previous 1996 Child Protection Act.

Federal officials such as the FBI have long sought out child porn offenders and recently cracked down on a worldwide web of child porn producers and distributors but what about video games, such as Rapeplay, which portray the rape of young girls? Does the stalking and rape of animated figures in video games “qualify” as child “porn”?

“U.S. law enforcement calls it a loophole big enough to throw a desktop through, and about as frustrating.”
ABC News, Virtual Child Porn Riles Law Enforcement

In 2007, ABC reported that due to a 2002 ruling of the Supreme Court, which quashed the 1996 Child Pornography Prevention Act implemented during the Clinton administration, law enforcement could not go after “animated” child porn.

“It’s very disturbing for child advocates because it’s sort of [a] loophole,” said Brad Garrett, a former FBI agent and an ABC News consultant.

Another agent, who worked for the FBI’s Innocent Images Task Force, told ABC News he was “devastated” by the ruling.

“I still can’t can’t believe it,” said the former agent, who declined to be identified because he is not authorized to talk about his work with the agency. “All virtual porn does is satisfy [pedophiles] until they can find their next victim. It feeds their addiction.”

Which led to this observation: what is the difference between animated or virtual porn and the real “thing”, in regards to child porn and to the sickening video game, Rapeplay?

The Supreme Court struck down the 1996 law in part due to Free Speech issues. The game, Rapeplay, is a bought at stores and played on PlayStation 2 devices. It also meant that animated child porn, where children are raped, such as a Rapeplay, were now free to sell their “product”.

The law also meant that retailers such as Amazon have “free reign” about which video games they want to sell to consumers. Until customers raised their objections, Amazon sold the video. If few had complained, the video would still be sold on Amazon.

Pat also pointed out that once the barn door has been opened, other heinous virtual games, such as Islamist beheadings and clan lynchings could soon follow. After all, Free Speech is Free Speech, at least as it relates to all things virtual. Free Speech that now includes the stalking and rape of women and young girls.

The lesson that is being learned, at least by child porn operators and rape enthusiasts, is that if you want to circumvent prison time and the stigma of being labeled a child and/or sexual predator, virtual animation is that way to go.

As for the “difference” between animated and the real thing, those who produce the animated product argue that no “real” child or woman was used in their product, that the “victims” are animated, so “no harm, no foul”.

Yet I could argue that what is occurring is very foul indeed. Participators in the game are getting their “jollies” by way of animated rape. Those who produce these products are engaging in the production of videos which curry to the basest of human behavior. Even though it’s “foul” and immoral, it’s not illegal. And as Pat pointed out, it will ultimately lead to other more “foul” animation being sold to the public.

As to the question of whether it spurs participants into committing rape, advocates of porn argue that watching virtual porn doesn’t lead people into committing actual crimes. Yet Rapeplay does fall into the category of “porn” and even child “porn”. Of course porn advocates would argue along these lines, to admit otherwise they’d be implicating themselves in the heinous world of child porn and also lose their source of income.

The oldest argument against porn was that it led to other behaviors, such as viewing women as sexual objects to be degraded. Yet this is a different type of porn, taken to a “lower” level, where women and young girls are raped, albeit by animation.

Are graphic “images” that are animated, less “disturbing” than the real thing? In my opinion they aren’t. While the images aren’t “real”, the game is very disturbing in that people find it “fun” to virtually rape women and young girls. So while it isn’t illegal, it’s creepy and very disturbing and makes me wonder just what new game is on the horizon?

By LBG and pat

Tags: amazon, animation, child porn, FBI, pornography, rape, Rapeplay, video games