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Entertainment Marketing: Movies, TV, Music and Gaming FBI

The FBI thinks gaming will help it defeat extremist propaganda

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By John McCarthy, Opinion Editor

February 10, 2016 | 2 min read

Video games have been heralded as a tool that can help stem the flow of young people to extremist causes by an unexpected advocate of gaming, the FBI.

The FBI released a confounding title on its dedicated educational website for teens called ‘Don’t Be a Puppet’.

America’s leading law enforcement agency released the game called ‘The Slippery Slope’ earlier this week.

It see players adopt the roll of a goat in an arcade-style game where obstacles like clouds and hills can prove lethal.

Between snippets of gameplay, the FBI delivers counter-propaganda messages as players “follow the distorted logic of blame that can lead a person into violent extremism”.

Promoting the site, the FBI said its microsite “uses activities, quizzes, videos, and other materials to teach teens how to recognize violent extremist messaging and become more resistant to self-radicalization and possible recruitment”.

“Through its Don’t Be a Puppet theme, the program encourages teens to think for themselves and display a healthy skepticism if they come across anyone who appears to be advocating extremist violence.”

While the FBI uses gaming as an informative tool for teens, the debate rages on in the US whether video games can cause aggression in players after they were linked by the media to the Sandy Hook killings in 2012.

Entertainment Marketing: Movies, TV, Music and Gaming FBI

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