Post: Community Revved Up Over Grand Theft Auto Ads
Community Revved Up Over Grand Theft Auto Ads
STORY UPDATE (Nov. 28): The Massachusetts Bay Transit Authority (MTBA) has agreed to stop advertising explicitly violent video games on its trains and buses.
Get those Grand Theft Auto ads off our buses now! That's the message Boston's elected officials, community leaders, and public health advocates imparted in a letter to the MBTA last week.
In the letter -- organized by the Campaign for a Commercial Free Childhood -- concerned community members complained that the ads for the M-rated game reached both children riding the bus, and those who lived in neighborhoods that the buses went through.
"It’s tragic that the MBTA is actually bringing messages that glorify violence into a community where young people are being murdered," said Ray A. Hammond, M.D., M.A., Co-Pastor, Bethel African Methodist Episcopal Church and Chairman and Co-Founder of the Boston Ten Point Coalition. "Displaying these ads does a terrible disservice to Boston’s children and undermines the hard work that all of us have been doing to end the tragic escalation of youth violence."
Click to read the complete letter, then share your opinion below.
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Date: November 27, 2006
I am rather torn about this one. I see the point -- violent game makers are marketing a mature game to kids. But I hate to limit free speech in any way. And isn't it still up to parents to decide to BUY the game? I'd love to hear from other parents on this one.