Entertainment responsibility
You are the copyright owner/marketer for a hot new video game: “Save America” whose slogan is “the only good terrorist is a dead terrorist.” It is in interactive, web-based, team role playing game in which covert, “black ops” Homeland Security “action teams” identify and eliminate terrorists. The team members select a limited number of specific skills which define their roles. They then investigate potential terrorists, all of Arab descent, and earn points for correctly identifying terrorists (averaging 1 in 3 “radical arabs” marked by traditional dress, diet or actively practicing Islam, and 1 in 6 “sleepers”, those of Arabic descent who are more westernized).
They earn more points for eliminating (assassinating) the terrorists without being caught by law enforcement, with additional points for the more creative “accidents” such as food or Carbon Monoxide poisoning, or arson. (At higher levels you gain access to secret briefing files on how to create these “accidents” without getting caught – part of the reality of the game.)
There are clear-cut levels of success, in which those who achieve specific point totals are given secret pass words which earn them considerable peer esteem in the very popular “Save America” chat rooms. A really good elimination can make a young person as much of a hero as a star athlete in a small but growing circle. There are also “special rewards” for high achievement – passwords to imbedded porn within the program. The “American Heroes” do, indeed, get the virtual girl, or guy.
1) What, if any, ethical responsibilities do you have for promoting this “kill terrorists” game with specific killing instructions?
2) It takes more than a year, but FBI crime reports are finally establishing a high correlation between actual crimes and “Save America” scenarios. The FBI notifies you of the correlation and advises you to change or stop selling the game and to dismantle the chat rooms and the reward structure. What is your ethical responsibility?
3) Correlation becomes fact when the FBI arrests one “Save America Action Team” for a series of hate murders of Arab Americans. The alleged murderers, or self-styled “American heroes”, plan to use the game as their defense: they were only following instructions, after all.
Department of Communication, Seton Hall University