Gamer's dilemma

Uncommon card · No. 125052

The gamer's dilemma is an ethical paradox in the position commonly held by video game players (gamers) that virtual acts of murder, but not virtual sexual acts depicting children, in video games are morally justified because they do not directly affect people in real life. The concept was first coined in a 2009 paper by ethicist Morgan Luck published in the Ethics and Information Technology journal. The dilemma is generally composed by the following arguments: Gamers believe that virtual acts of murder, but not virtual sexual acts involving children, are morally permissible; Gamers believe that virtual acts of murder are permissible because no real person can be directly affected by them; But virtual sexual acts involving children are also unable to directly affect any real child; There is no other meaningful distinction to morally differentiate those two acts; Therefore, in order to be consistent, gamers must either hold that virtual acts of murder are unjustified, or that virtual sexual...

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