Video games often transport players to fictionalized battlefields, mythical lands or the distant future.
But one game now sparking concerns among parents places kids on convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein’s island in the Caribbean.
The game is titled “Five Nights at Epstein’s,” a parody of the horror franchise “Five Nights at Freddy’s.” It’s available on itch.io, an open platform for indie games, according to NewsBytes.
Epstein, a disgraced financier who died in jail in 2019, has been linked to high-profile figures. Debates over whether to release the Epstein files — the collection of investigative records into his crimes — have dominated headlines.
Parents and experts have voiced worries that a video game that has kids pretending to be trapped with the convicted sex offender trivializes Epstein’s crimes and dehumanizes his victims, Newsweek reported.
The game’s tagline is ominous: “Can you survive the night?”
“Players monitor surveillance cameras in rooms modeled on Epstein’s notorious Little St. James island home, trying to avoid being caught by him,” a Newsweek report said. “When Epstein approaches, players must attempt to lure him away by playing sounds of a child’s voice.”
The goal of the game is to spend five nights without allowing Epstein to find you. If he catches you, it’s game over.
The game includes images of President Donald Trump and the late astrophysicist Stephen Hawking, according to Newsweek.
“Five Nights at Epstein’s” posed problems for schools in Wake County, N.C., where district officials discovered students were playing the game on school computers.
Because students can play it for free on web browsers without installing the game, they could bypass security alerts on the school’s devices, according to local news reports.
The school district has since blocked the site hosting the game.
Parents in Granite School District in Utah also flagged concerns about the game and called on schools to curb their kids’ access to such content.
One parent there, Michelle Martinez, told ABC4 it “absolutely disgusts me and breaks my heart that our children are subject to this, especially in this day and age.”
The parent said she hadn’t realized her son knew who Epstein was.
“I hadn’t had the conversation with him yet, or talked to him about situations like that yet,” she told the news network.
A similar game that also played off the “Five Nights at Freddy’s” concept, called “Five Nights at Diddy’s,” revolved around evading rapper Sean “Diddy” Combs, who has been convicted of prostitution-related offenses, Newsweek reported.
