Children exposed to graphic pro-Israel adverts in popular video games | Tech News

An investigation by Reuters uncovered a number of similar cases, including one in which a six-year-old boy was shown a video of ‘Hamas militants, terrified Israeli families and blurred graphic footage.

Over a black screen, a message from the Israeli government in all capitals said: ‘We will make sure that those who harm us pay a heavy price.’

Maria Julia Cassis, a barista from Brazil living in north London, said her son was ‘left shaken’ after seeing the advert. She deleted the game, Alice’s Mergeland, which allows users to create their own fantasy world.

Follow the latest news on the Israel-Hamas war on Metro.co.uk’s live blog here

‘He was shocked,’ said Ms Cassis. ‘He literally said “What is this bloody ad doing in my game?”.’

Reuters has not been able to establish how the ad came to Cassis’s son’s video game, but her family isn’t alone. The news agency has documented at least five other cases across Europe where the same pro-Israel video, which carried footage of rocket attacks, a fiery explosion, and masked gunmen, was shown to gamers, including several children.

In at least one case, the ads were played inside the popular Angry Birds game made by SEGA-owned developer Rovio.

Rovio confirmed that ‘somehow these ads with disturbing content have in error made it through to our game’, but were now being blocked manually. Spokesperson Lotta Backlund did not provide details on which of its ‘dozen or so ad partners’ had supplied it with the ad.

David Saranga, the Israeli ministry of foreign affairs’ head of digital, confirmed that the video was a government-promoted ad – but said he had ‘no idea’ how it has been seen in children’s video games.

He confirmed the footage was part of a larger advocacy drive by the ministry, which has spent more than £1.2million on internet ads since Hamas’s attack on civilians in southern Israel on October 7, igniting war in Gaza.

He added that officials had specifically instructed advertisers ‘to block it for people under 18’, but defended the graphic nature of the ad campaign.

‘We want the world to understand that what happened here in Israel,’ he said. ‘It’s a massacre.’

Reuters contacted 43 advertising firms that Angry Birds’ developer Rovio listed on its website as ‘third-party data partners’ to try to ascertain who placed the ad in the games.

Of those partners, 12 responded, including Amazon, Index Exchange and Pinterest – all said they were not responsible for the ad appearing on Angry Birds.

Mr Saranga said the ministry had spent money with ad companies including Taboola, Outbrain, Google and X, formerly known as Twitter. Taboola and Outbrain said they had nothing to do with the gaming ads.

Google ran more than 90 ads for the foreign ministry but declined to comment on where it displayed those ads. X did not respond to requests for comment.

Reuters found no evidence of an analogous Palestinian digital advertising effort, save for a few Arabic-language videos promoted by West Bank-based Palestine TV, a news agency affiliated with the Palestinian Authority.

A representative from the Palestinian Authority’s foreign ministry shared a statement saying the ministry was working to sway public opinion by sharing evidence of suffering in Gaza under the Israeli bombardment that followed the October 7 attack, but did not say whether it was using advertising as a tool.

Representatives from Hamas, the Islamist movement that governs Gaza, did not respond to Reuters’ requests for comment about its media campaigns.

Reuters documented six cases – in Britain, France, Austria, Germany and Holland – where people had seen the same or similar ads as Cassis’ son or said their children had seen them. 

Alongside Alice’s Mergeland, made by a developer called LazyDog Game, other ads appeared on family-friendly programs such as the block-building game Stack, puzzle game Balls’n Ropes, Solitaire: Card Game 2023 and run-and-jump adventure Subway Surfers.

MORE : X under fire over spread of ‘terrorist content and hate speech’

MORE : Leader of group that celebrated Hamas attacks is NHS GP under different name