Kids' game promotes hooliganism

 

Gallery

Posted on 13 Oct 2008 at 17:23

An online game has been accused of promoting football hooliganism among children as young as seven years old. Little Hooliganz, is a new online community game in which players train their own thug to fight with rival supporter 'firms', and attack pensioners.

The game is geared towards players from seven to 16 years old, and characters must steal money to buy beer and weapons, such as samurai swords, crow bars, knuckledusters and chainsaws.

The Football Association, football fans' groups and anti-gun and knife crime campaigners have criticised the game for glamorising violence and antisocial behaviour among children.

In the game, players must ensure that characters have a sufficient alcohol levels in their system, "If you don't drink you will die. Its quite natural so get yourself a pint of the finest," instructs the game.

It also measures players' performance in terms of points gained for relevant attributes, with categories such as strength, speed, fanatism (sic) and guts, or 'bollocks', as the game also refers to.

"Is you bad or is you a big girls (sic) blouse?" asks the game.

According to the website, the game has attracted 10,000 players in its first week.

Chris Evans, one of the game's developers, claims children as young as seven years old can appreciate the "parody of the violence which sometimes surrounds football games in the UK".

"People understand the difference between cartoon violence on an internet game and the horrific results of violence in real life," he said.

"Just because we are giving our members the chance to buy a baseball bat or nunchucka and beat up their rivals' characters doesn't mean they are going to do it in real life."

Evans' team also developed Miss Bimbo - a virtual game targeted towards nine to 16 year old girls, where players are encouraged to give their virtual dolls breast implants and put them on crash diets.

Author: Dawinderpal Sahota