Pros And Cons Of Virtual Pedophilia

As the virtual world begins to expand in our current age of technology, we are faced with moral dilemmas. Do our decisions and actions in the virtual world lead to consequences in reality? It is a question where a line is drawn between our reality and virtual selves. Virtual murder is common among the most popular and widely distributed video games. Most consumers wouldn’t think twice about the questionability of murder in video games. Adapting this argument to virtual pedophelia, however, leads to contradicting responses. The question is: is there a clear distinction between virtual murder and virtual pedophilia? Or in other words; if society is accepting of murder in video games, then why not pedophilia? This is the Gamer’s Dilemma addressed in Morgan Luck’s article. …show more content…
He concludes that there are no compelling moral distinctions between virtual murder and virtual pedophilia, therefore if one is impermissible, the other must be as well. In this paper, I will be attempting to resolve the Gamer’s Dilemma. My goal of this paper is to reflect and expand on Luck’s argument in order to ultimately come to a consensus that murder is only permissible in certain games for mere educational purposes, and all other forms of murder and all forms of virtual pedophilia are impermissible. I will be approaching this paper with views of Kantian ethics, and we must accept two premises: 1) people have value and should not be treated as mere means, therefore 2) murdering and pedophilia in video games for mere means of pleasure are