Canada school deaths suspect created shooting simulator on gaming platform | Tumbler Ridge school shooting
It was revealed that the 18-year-old suspect in a high school shooting in British Columbia had previously created a mass shooting simulator on the Roblox gaming platform.
Set up in what appeared to be a virtual shopping mall, the simulator allowed users, represented as Roblox-style avatars, to pick up guns and shoot other players. 404 Media It was reported on Thursday.
Users first spotted the suspect’s Roblox account and game on the Kiwi Farms site, which is known for doxing and trolling. Following Wednesday’s shooting, Canadian police identified the suspect as Jesse Van Rootselaar.
In a statement to the Guardian, Roblox said: “We have removed the user account linked to this horrific incident and all content associated with the suspect. We are committed to fully supporting law enforcement in the investigation.”
The California-based company added that the “Mall experience” is only accessible through Roblox Studio, a separate app that developers use to create games. As a result, the simulator recorded only seven visits.
Roblox also said it uses a combination of artificial intelligence and a team of security experts to review content uploaded to its platform before it is displayed to another user.
Wednesday’s attack, one of Canada’s deadliest school shootings since the 1989 Ecole Polytechnique massacre in which a gunman killed 14 women, left nine people dead in the small coal mining community of Tumbler Ridge.
The victims included a teacher, five students, the suspect’s mother and his half-sibling. The suspect, who reportedly had mental health issues in the past, was found dead as a result of a self-inflicted gunshot wound.
This isn’t the first time Roblox has been criticized for its content. The platform allows its millions of users to create and share their own video games; mostly good-natured, featuring cartoon fish and campiness trips.
However, it is also claimed that Jeffrey Epstein-themed content is made available to children. case for facilitating the sexual exploitation and assault of minors in California.
Links between violent video games and mass shootings have long been debated and inconclusive; major studies find at most a small correlation between gaming and real-world aggression.
However, although games do not cause violence, recent events show a growing trend of “gamified violence”: extremists adopting elements of video game design in the context of real-world attacks.
This is happening is becoming more common. The attackers in the 2019 mosque attack in Christchurch, New Zealand, broadcast their massacre on Twitch, a platform that allows users to livestream playing video games; like the hitman does Racially motivated attack in BuffaloNew York in 2022.
