Turkey Seeks to Ban Minecraft

After an investigation held by the Turkish Social Policies Ministry, it has now been confirmed that the country is seeking to ban the wildly popular sandbox phenomenon, Minecraft, on the grounds that the game is “too violent”. The news was broken by Turkish news outlets Hürriyet Daily News and LeaderGamer.

The Ministry’s report on Minecraft and its supposed violent content has been sent to the country’s legal affairs department, along with instruction to ban the game, but the decision rests in the hands of the Turkish courts.

The report reads (via Hürriyet Daily), “Although the game can be seen as encouraging creativity in children by letting them build houses, farmlands and bridges, mobs [hostile creatures] must be killed in order to protect these structures. In short, the game is based on violence.” Bizarrely, the report also claims that the Minecraft’s content would cause children “social isolation” and that the online function would result in internet bullying, which begs the question, why not just ban the internet, then?

In common with the rest of the world, Minecraft is huge in Turkey. One of the best-selling children’s books in Turkey last year was a Minecraft-related title.

Source: Kotaku