Children Exposed to Graphic War Content Through Video Games
By Movieguide® Contributor
As Israel launches a publicity campaign to spread awareness about its war against Hamas, children are being served graphic ads.
To garner worldwide support, Israel has launched an ad campaign that includes violent images from the ongoing war. The Israeli Foreign Ministry has spent $1.5 million on these ads since the war began but specifically told advertisers to “block [them] for people under 18,” according to the Israeli Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
Unfortunately, these ads have made their way onto apps with large child audiences, such as the games Angry Birds and Subway Surfers. Angry Birds developer Rovio was particularly shocked by the appearance of these ads on their game.
“Somehow these ads with disturbing content have in error made it through to our game,” Rovio said, noting that they were now manually blocking these ads from continuing to appear.
According to U.S. News, “Israeli Ministry of Foreign Affairs’ head of digital, David Saranga, confirmed that the video was a government-promoted ad but said he had ‘no idea’ how it ended up inside various games.”
Israel’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs has worked with Google, X, Taboola and Outbrain to disperse its ads. Taboola and Outbrain have both clarified that they had no part in these ads appearing on children’s games.
While the serving of these ads to children was unintentional by Israel, the fact that they ended up on children’s games highlights the reach that graphic content has. Images of war are being spread on social media, and with no distinction that they are not meant for people under 18, they are easily accessible for kids to stumble upon.
To protect children from these scarring images, some have been calling for parents to remove their kids’ access to social media or, at the very least, monitor the material they are viewing.
Movieguide® previously reported:
As the war in Israel continues, American and Israeli schools are urging parents to have their kids delete TikTok and Instagram as Hamas, a terrorist organization, is threatening to upload graphic and disturbing videos.
It is common that “videos showing pleas, violence and even killings are a common tactic by terrorist groups that take hostages. Israel says about 150 people are being held hostage, including women, children and the elderly. Hamas has warned that it would execute hostages in response to strikes in Gaza,” Times of Israel wrote.
Forbes reported that one school sent a message to parents: “Dear Parents: We have been notified that soon there will be videos of the hostages begging for their lives. Please delete TikTok from your children’s phones. We cannot allow our children to see them.”
“It’s hard for us, it’s impossible for us, to digest all of the content displayed on various social networks,” the message continued.
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