Microsoft probes Turkey banning Minecraft

Minecraft owner Microsoft is investigating whether Turkey is going to ban the popular videogame after the Turkish Family and Social Policies Ministry said it encouraged children to resort to violence, the BBC reported Wednesday.

The local daily Habertürk reported that the ministry has concluded that the game should be banned. The ministry’s Children Services General Directorate reached its conclusion after a probe, which was sent to its legal affairs department.

“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,” Habertürk quoted the ministry’s report as saying.

However, the spokesman for the Turkish Embassy in Washington described the proposed ban as “out of the question.”

Fatih Oke, told Christian Science Monitor: “There will be no ban,” adding “the game is not banned and is not going to be banned.”

Oke said the ministry does not have the wielding authority to ban any product but it could “raise awareness.”

He added: “I understand that this is what has been said in the Turkish media, but it is incorrect.”

However, he said that he was “told there were numerous complaints from parents about Minecraft and its influence on children.”