Merciful Allah here we go again. You may have caught some of the discussion on the recent “Islam is the light” debacle surrounding Baby Pals for the DS.  I agree with the conclusions drawn on other gaming sites that have covered this, mainly that this woman needs a hobby and is hearing things that aren’t really there. What I want to add to this discussion is to focus on the other inflammatory aspect of the coverage. Clearly any news outlet that runs a story like this has little credibility to begin with. However, the viewpoint represented exists and, as gamers, we should not laugh this off when there are those who will take it seriously. We need to understand biases such as these if we are ever going to overcome them.

The newscast that carried this poor excuse for news predictably played off the fear many in the US have of the Muslim religion. Unfortunately that is the country we live in, though I hope it makes you mad, it shouldn’t really shock anyone given the “secret-Muslim” accusations that were thrown at President Obama during the election. What surprised me were the implications made during the newscast that this was somehow Nintendo or Crave’s fault for this making it into the game. At one point during the segment they went so far as to zoom in on the ESRB rating of E saying that the game is supposed to be for a child of any age.

In this country it is up to you what biases you choose to instill in your child. It is not, however, up to you to dictate what is appropriate for the rest of the population. The game rating of E is simply stating that the average person would not have a problem with their child, of 6 years or more, being exposed to what is in the game. If you are the type of person who doesn’t want their child exposed to cartoon violence or whatever else the E rating entails, then don’t buy the game for your kid. If you are so fearful of what your impressionable little one is being exposed to then it falls on your shoulders to screen the material.

This woman has no right to be angry about what she construed to be an inflammatory message buried in her daughter’s game. Even if the message were real, there would be no excuse for this kind of reaction. Bottom line: if you are that controlling of a parent, then exercise that control and play the game through before you give it to your kid. As a parent you cannot expect anyone but yourself to look out for your child. It shouldn’t be the job of the clerk at Best Buy to stop your kid from buying Grand Theft Auto IV, it is your job to know what your child is playing . We have all seen how the government handles its business, do you really want the government raising your child? Get off your ass and see what your kid is into, who knows, Insallah you may shed some of your ignorance in the process.

-Matt Frank

Tags: Baby Pals, DS, ESRB, featured

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