Disturbing claims about popular online shooting game

DISTURBING similarities between the horror Christchurch massacre and online gaming have emerged, as the shooter’s manifesto revealed he trained for the attack by playing popular game Fortnite. The attack was live-streamed in a way that made Australia’s Muslim leaders question whether they were watching a game.

“I’ve never seen anything like it, I didn’t know if I was watching Fortnite or reality,” Australian National Imams Council spokesman Bilal Rauf said.

Hours later it emerged gun- man Brenton Tarrant noted in his manifesto that playing Fortnite “trained me to be a killer”.

He asked: “Were you taught violence and extremism by video games, music, literature, cinema?” He answers the game Spyro The Dragon 3 had taught him ethno-nationalism and “Fortnite trained me to be a killer and to floss on the corpses of my enemies”. Australian critics have long held concerns about Fortnite, which features hundreds of strangers going headto-head in gunbattles until only one is left standing. It has an M rating and should not be played by children under 12.

Yet a number of primary schools last year had to issue warnings to parents about the game’s “negative effects” on children, including “a noticeable change in some behaviours in the classroom and playground”.

At one South Coast school, parents were told: “The ability to communicate online while playing these games is leading to moments of online bullying, the use of inappropriate language and abuse.”