The 18-year-old suspect in a high school shooting in British Columbia previously created a mass shooting simulator on the gaming platform Roblox, it has been revealed.
The simulator, set in a virtual shopping mall, allows users – presented as Roblox-style avatars – to pick up weapons and shoot other players, 404 media Reported on Thursday.
Users first identified the suspect’s Roblox account and games on Kiwi Farms, a site known for doxxing and trolling. Following the shooting on Wednesday, Canadian police identified the suspect as Jesse Van Rutselaar.
In a statement to the Guardian, Roblox said: “We have removed the user account associated with this horrific incident, as well as any content associated with the suspect. We are committed to fully supporting law enforcement in their investigation.”
The California-based company said the “mall experience” was only accessible through Roblox Studio, a separate app used by developers to create games. As a result, the simulator recorded only seven visits.
Roblox also said it uses a combination of AI and a team of security experts to review content uploaded to its platform before it is shown to any other users.
Wednesday’s attack — one of Canada’s deadliest school shootings since the 1989 École Polytechnique massacre, when a gunman killed 14 women — left nine dead in Tumbler Ridge, a small coal mining community.
The victims include a teacher, five students, the suspect’s mother and his half-brother. The suspect, who reportedly had a history of mental health problems, was found dead from a self-inflicted gunshot wound.
This is not 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 – many of them benign, including cartoon fish and camping. trips.
However, it also allegedly made Jeffrey Epstein-themed material available to children, and is facing controversy trial For facilitating the sexual exploitation and assault of minors in California.
The relationship between violent video games and mass shootings has long been debated and remains inconclusive, with large studies finding little to no association between gaming and real-world aggression.
However, although games may not cause violence, recent incidents highlight a growing trend of “gamified violence”: extremists adopting elements of video game design in the context of real-world attacks.
this is being made increasingly common. The attacker in the 2019 mosque shootings in Christchurch, New Zealand, broadcast his massacre on Facebook. A Racially motivated shooting in BuffaloNew York, in 2022, was broadcast on Twitch, a platform that allows users to livestream while playing video games.
