Big Tech company Google reportedly advertised to children a mobile game that teaches kids how to sexually assault teenage girls.
NOQ Report said that the game challenges children to attempt to undress a teenage girl--said to be the in-game player character's stepsister--while avoiding waking her up.
A screenshot of the video advertisement showed a teenage girl lying in bed sleeping and a boy standing in front of her while a huge hand -representing that of the player's- floats above two buttons. The two buttons each have text on them: one says "Don't disturb her" and the other one says "Help her undress."
Each time the hand is pointed to a portion of the clothing the unconscious stepsister wore, it would disappear and expose what's underneath it, prompting inspirational blogger and activist Elizabeth Johnston to call the video advertisement as "vulgar" and "pornographic." Johnston stressed that it "makes light of sexual assault."
The New York Post said the perverse game, entitled "LUV," was originally available in Google Play store but was thankfully removed.
However, a video of the advertisement landed in popular social media app Tiktok. The said video documented the advertisement's contents and highlighted that it appears in various "Free To Play" games for kids. It also raised the need for Google to bring down the app from its offering. The said Tiktok video was similarly removed afterwards.
Now a copy of the said Tiktok video was then uploaded in the same platform last Saturday by filmmaker Michael McWhorter who called on Google's attention as a means to warn parents that it exists.
"Hey Google, why is this in your play store?" McWhorter's caption read, garnering an attention of 250,000 views, 44,700 likes, and 3,127 comments as of this writing.
In the post, McWhorter presented into parts the Tiktok video that documented the Google ad while he commented in between it. McWhorter highlighted the subliminal message the Google ad conveyed to kids that not only exposes them to pornography but also tell them the woman is "into it." He also raised his concern as a parent since his son uses the Google Play store and might have already seen the ad.
"I have an iPhone so I use the Apple app store. My son, however, uses the Google Play store for games on his phone. Anyone who has an experience with these know that Free To Play games know that the way the games are free is it has lots of ads until you finish a level. This is an ad this guy experienced while playing," McWhorter began in his post.
"Once again, the goal is to get her naked without waking her. But the message is, 'If you do wake her, don't worry, she's into it.' Google, how the **** is this game available in your app store and then being advertised on other games! A game that my son could easily play!" he stressed regarding the ad and the game itself.
McWhorter also underscored how the Google video advertisement and the "LUV" game itself degrades women and teaches young minds -especially of pre-teen boys- to do the same.
"A game that teaches your pre-teen boys about how women should be valued and treated. I wanna make sure Google sees this. Google, this is wrong. Do something about this," McWhorter pointed out.
Ironically, Google's Inappropriate Content policy says it prohibits "apps that contain or promote sexual content or profanity, including pornography, or any content or services intended to be sexually gratifying." The policy similarly prohibits the same content for its advertisements along with any signs of "nudity" in it.