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Group warns of racist Web games
CANBERRA, Australia (Reuters) -- Australia's rights watchdog warned on Monday of an increasing number of computer games sold via the Internet that involved simulated killings of other races and called for action to clamp down on this trend. The Human Rights and Equal Opportunity Commission said new research showed there were about 20 racist computer games advertised or distributed via the Internet, most of which are marketed by American sites. "The images and computer games are particularly disturbing in their capacity to drain people of their humanity, to render them as sub-human and expendable," commissioner for race discrimination, Bill Jonas, said in a statement. "This is a new problem and we need to work out better ways of dealing with it." Jonas said these games were turning racially motivated violence into entertainment and urged people to complain to the commission if they came across any of these games. He encouraged regulatory groups to find ways to block or filter these games. In one game, players can choose to have their character dressed in Ku Klux Klan robes or as a skinhead during the hunt to kill blacks, Latin Americans and Jews -- all to the tune of a white power music soundtrack. Jonas said it was difficult to apply Australian laws designed to clamp down on racism to games or other items on the Internet as it was not always easy to identify the authors of racist material. "It's also difficult to apply Australian laws when racist groups use overseas Internet service providers," he said. Australian authorities scored their first victory on race hate and the Internet last October when the Federal Court ruled a Web site that denied the Holocaust happened and vilified Jewish people was illegal under racial discrimination laws. Justice Catherine Branson ordered Fredrick Toben to remove offensive material from his Adelaide Institute Web site and issue a written apology to the president of the Executive Council of Australian Jewry, Jeremy Jones, who brought the legal action. The case is currently under appeal. A former school teacher, Toben was jailed in Germany in 1999 for seven months on charges of inciting hatred through pamphlets. Copyright 2003 Reuters. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
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