I'm using tit controls

ESA Trashes UN Cyberviolence Report

Not everyone is willing to simply listen and believe


In late September, the UN Broadband Commission released a controversial report on cyberviolence and harassment of women online.

This report has stirred up quite a furor. From its questionable conclusions to its inclusion of certain controversial figures in the gaming world, the reactions to this report have been notable. Many have said that the report calls for censorship as a way to prevent women from experiencing online harassment while others feel these are absolutely necessary steps.

While the report focuses mainly on the aspects of cyberviolence against women, the report also roundly criticizes the pornography industry as misogynistic, and somehow harmful to women. This should be of great concern for those in the world of adult gaming.

From the report

“There is a well-worn statistic that 30% of all Internet traffic constitutes porn: Research also reveals that 88.2% of top rated porn scenes contain aggressive acts and 94% of the time the act is directed towards a woman. Furthermore, studies show that after viewing pornography men are more likely to: report decreased empathy for rape victims; have increasingly aggressive behavioral tendencies; report believing that a woman who dresses provocatively deserves to be raped; report anger at women who flirt but then refuse to have sex; report decreased sexual interest in their girlfriends or wives; report increased interest in coercing partners into unwanted sex acts.”

“mainstreaming of pornography does not mean that the exploitation or abuse of women used in making the pornography has decreased. Instead, as a result of competition among sites, the percentage of violent, misogynistic images has been steadily increasing. Sites are attempting to lure customers with increasingly graphic images. What is new is the volume of pornography that is being made and that the average person with a computer, modem, and search engine can find more violent, degrading images within minutes than they could in a lifetime 15 years ago.”

The sorry state of the listed sources for this report, which included several discredited studies, as well as a file directory path to the contents of a computer hard drive have become a joke in their own right as the content and conclusions of this report have been torn apart by various parties.


The Entertainment Software Association has released the following statement on the report.

#“ESA Criticizes United Nations’ Flawed Video Game Research

U.N. Utilizes Outdated and Debunked Opinions on Video Games

October 6, 2015 – Washington, D.C. – The Entertainment Software Association (ESA) today strongly criticized opinions and outdated research on video games in a new report from the United Nations entitled, “Cyber Violence Against Women and Girls.” Specifically, the United Nations report utilizes hyperbolic, outlandish, and outdated notions of video games and gamers. ESA is the trade association representing the U.S. video game industry.

The report cites an opinion article written in 2000, which is rife with antiquated views from noted and debunked anti-video game figures. In quoting Lyndon LaRouche and his wife, Helga Zepp LaRouche, the U.N.’s source material cites Zepp LaRouche’s work, “The Mark of the Beast: America’s Children Are in Mortal Danger,” in which she mistakenly reports that children as young as two abuse digital entertainment. Medical professionals specifically have declined repeatedly to pathologize video game use.

“This is an uninformed, misguided and unfortunate report. If the overall issue was not so serious, it would be laughable that the U.N. is citing this work. It is willful ignorance to utilize such incredibly outlandish and outdated data,” said Michael D. Gallagher, president and CEO of ESA. “ESA strongly supports empowering women and minorities and creating an inclusive digital environment that welcomes all perspectives. However, the U.N. does this important issue a great disservice and undercuts its credibility by spreading ridiculous stereotypes and false opinions.”

Numerous medical professionals, researchers, and courts all debunk the fundamental thesis of their argument. In tearing down similar faulty research, the U.S. Supreme Court specifically ruled that “psychological studies purporting to show a connection between exposure to violent video games and harmful effects on children do not prove that such exposure causes minors to act aggressively.”

ESA offers a wide range of services to interactive entertainment software publishers, including conducting business and consumer research, providing legal and policy analysis and advocacy on First Amendment, intellectual property and technology/e-commerce issues, managing a global content protection program, owning and operating E3  and representing video game industry interests in federal and state government relations. For more information, visit ESA’s website  or follow us on Twitter at @RichatESA  or @ESAGovAffairs.”

This statement from The Entertainment Software Association is very encouraging. If the positions of this report were to be taken seriously and acted upon it would have dire implications, for gaming, and the internet as a whole. It is also worth noting that during the researching of this article I was unable to find the report on the official site as it has apparently been pulled.


Luckily, I was able to acquire a PDF copy of the original report from an anonymous source, that I then verified through cross referencing with other published excerpts.

A greatly reduced “report highlights” PDF has been made available for download on the Broadband Commission’s site in place of the original report.

Feel free to follow LewdGamer on Twitter @LewdGamer  and me personally @Lewd_Raze. If you enjoy our content and would like to support us, please consider donating to our Patreon. Thanks for reading!

Share on:

Comments go here

Adults Only

You must be over 18 to use this site.

It contains sexually explicit and/or NSFW content.

Are you 18 years or older and willing to view adult content?

IE/Edge Detected

It appears you're using Microsoft's Internet Explorer or Edge.

Unfortunately, these browsers don't support some CSS properties that are important to the layout of this site.

You can but some elements may appear broken.

We recommend you use one of the following browsers. They're all free (and, in our opinion, better).