Vice City Stories ads banned in Boston

Remember last month when we told you guys that some people in Boston were saying that the GTA: Vice City Stories ads should be pulled off the subways and other forms of public transit?

Well, it seems that the backers of the Campaign for a Commercial-Free Childhood were able to pressure the MBTA (Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority) enough to take down the ads for Vice City.

According to a Daily Comet report, the MBTA has decided to stop displaying ads for video games that touches on “sensitive” adult material. This is due to a complaint filed by a citizens group that sees VCS as a game that “encourages players to steal, murder and have sex with prostitutes.”

In a letter dated Monday, MBTA General Manager Daniel Grabauskas told the people behind CCFC that the MBTA’s board had approved the move to ban advertisements for games suitable only for persons aged 17 and above. Here’s what Susan Linn, co-founder of the Campaign for a Commercial-Free Childhood had to say about this:

We are thrilled that the MBTA has been so responsive to community concerns. The children of Boston can now ride the MBTA without being targets for advertising that glorifies violence. [The decision] sends a strong message to the videogame industry that public property cannot be used to promote violence to children. We hope that other cities will follow suit.

The NIMF or National Institute on Media and the Family are also on GTA’s case, listing Vice City Stories as one of the non child-friendly games that parents should persuade their kids to avoid. Now I dunno about you guys, but I really think we oughta give kids (and people in general!) more credit. They’re not that stupid to think that it’s okay to go out and commit various crimes just because video game characters do it. Surely the gaming community knows how to delineate virtual realities from the real world, right?

Remember last month when we told you guys that some people in Boston were saying that the GTA: Vice City Stories ads should be pulled off the subways and other forms of public transit?

Well, it seems that the backers of the Campaign for a Commercial-Free Childhood were able to pressure the MBTA (Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority) enough to take down the ads for Vice City.

According to a Daily Comet report, the MBTA has decided to stop displaying ads for video games that touches on “sensitive” adult material. This is due to a complaint filed by a citizens group that sees VCS as a game that “encourages players to steal, murder and have sex with prostitutes.”

In a letter dated Monday, MBTA General Manager Daniel Grabauskas told the people behind CCFC that the MBTA’s board had approved the move to ban advertisements for games suitable only for persons aged 17 and above. Here’s what Susan Linn, co-founder of the Campaign for a Commercial-Free Childhood had to say about this:

We are thrilled that the MBTA has been so responsive to community concerns. The children of Boston can now ride the MBTA without being targets for advertising that glorifies violence. [The decision] sends a strong message to the videogame industry that public property cannot be used to promote violence to children. We hope that other cities will follow suit.

The NIMF or National Institute on Media and the Family are also on GTA’s case, listing Vice City Stories as one of the non child-friendly games that parents should persuade their kids to avoid. Now I dunno about you guys, but I really think we oughta give kids (and people in general!) more credit. They’re not that stupid to think that it’s okay to go out and commit various crimes just because video game characters do it. Surely the gaming community knows how to delineate virtual realities from the real world, right?