Depictions of Domestic Abuse in Games is Getting Worse By the Bunch

Domestic abuse is a controversial topic to tackle in any form of media, whether it be literature, film, or even video games. In fact, going this route definitely explains the horrors and realities abuse has on its victims. For every person injured or killed by this, survivors and the general public can better understand and respond to the consequences that a family member may violently inflict.

In the video game industry, this theme is prevalent in visual novel subgenre of adventure games. Stories can often focus on the importance of uplifting social issues and gender segregation. In fact, Nintendo’s Emio – The Smiling Man, which released on the Nintendo Switch last month, has already received backlash from advocacy groups in the West. Additionally, it earned a hard R for “disturbing content including teen suicide and domestic abuse, and for violent images”, making it the first Nintendo-developed game to get a restricted rating. This game included the very theme that caused the titular villain to become a serial killer – domestic abuse.

Following a controversial incident involving domestic abuse Emiko Hosokawa have heard of and despite having a PG-13 rating, she has decided to go on a boycott campaign against Mad Father, a game about a man neglecting his daughter for the sake of kidnapping and killing numerous people – all for the vile agenda of taxidermizing their corpses. Not just Mad Father is targeted in this potential campaign, Hosokawa also stated that she would extend her scope to virtually any game with similar content depicting any form of domestic abuse.

The purpose of this possible campaign, according to Hosokawa, is to have these games being completely banned from the market or have stricter regulations regarding who can be able to purchase and play them.

Even though Hosokawa’s plans to boycott Mad Father was cut short for the time being due to being stopped by people she met on various Discord servers, she still vehemently adhere to the belief that good cultural backgrounds – including the media one consumes – is integral for a noble character striving for good. Indeed she recalls that she used to look up explicit content in fifth grade after being tempted by older students looking them up¹, but after people telling her to stop, she did what they said – and regrets the decision of viewing explicit content at that age greatly. She told that she was lucky to have people to intervene with her whenever she goes down the wrong path – but others might not be as lucky, especially when “dehumanizing” media are said to be more easily accessed nowadays partially due to the presence of pirate sites offering such content for free when they are otherwise locked behind a paywall or age verification system.

Notes

1. According to one study, two in three internet users aged 13-17 (or sometimes younger) may have accidentally stumbled across explicit sexual content while browsing the web, even while trying to be safe. One in two of those individuals may have felt the effects often. Additionally, one in five internet users aged 10-17 have been tempted by another person, whether at school or online, to view such content. In the United States, it is a federal offense under Section 2251 of the United States Criminal Code to entice a minor to view sexually explicit material and is punishable up to 30 years in federal prison. In Studio Emiko’s home country of Vietnam, explicit sexual content in media is outlawed and will immediately be refused classification, making it illegal to sell, distribute, or publicly exhibit. Sites of this nature are also banned from the general public for a similar reason. ↩︎