Nintendo DS Calls 11-Year Old A 'F***** Cow'

Schoolgirl Khloe Leslie was horrified when her favourite computer game, Animal Crossing on the Nintendo DS, "took her to a vulgar new level – and called her a 'f****** cow"', reported today’s free-sheet Metro Newspaper.

As if by way of proof the enterprising young lass also managed to take a picture of the offending screenshot (pictured right).

The 11-year-old’s mother Leeanne, 28, of Inverbervie, Angus, has apparently banned her from playing Animal Crossing on her DS which, the Metro is so keen to point out, “is branded suitable for children aged three and upwards.”

Before we continue to make sense of and deconstruct this latest extreme example of tabloid anti-videogame scaremongering, can we just point out that Associated Newspapers also owns and publishes that other anti-videogaming ‘organ’ The Daily Mail.

A Nintendo UK spokesman was keen to stress to the Metro reporter that none of its children's games contained offensive content, telling them 'It is either a pirate copy or it is user-inputted text.'

So, firstly, let’s be crystal clear. The offensive text is in blue. Which means it is user-inputted text. Which means it is most likely that the girl or one of her friends or siblings have at some point inputted the words themselves, for whatever reasons. Or, more darkly, that the parents have inputted the words.

Whatever, it DOES not mean that Nintendo or videogames are to blame for ‘these machines swearing at our children’, which, unfortunately, millions of non-gaming-savvy Metro readers have been lead to believe today.