A thirteen-year-old boy plays video games enough, but with a global pandemic and online classes, one can only imagine the amount of time teenagers around the world have been spending with a controller and in front of a screen. For many young adults, video games play an integral part of their childhood. In 2015, ktar news conducted a study that showed that about 72% of teenagers either watch or play video games. These games shape the minds of kids around the globe and are an integral part of many thirteen to seventeen-year-old kids.

Many different companies produce hundreds of video games that draw the attention of these kids. With so many people playing, these companies have the chance to influence teenagers and develop this next generation of humans that can either make positive or negative impacts on their communities. In tough times like these, it is even more important that now more than ever, companies with high platforms are setting an example.

Ubisoft is a French video game developer and publisher company that was founded by the five Guillemot brothers in 1986.  For the past thirty years, Ubisoft has expanded immensely and reached many different powerful countries that have hundreds of thousands of people playing and spreading their games. What Ubisoft is most known for is their Tom Clancy gaming series. The Tom Clancy series is a game that involves military strategy to defeat other enemies in battle. The newest edition of the game is “Tom Clancy’s Elite Squad” which combines all of the elements of each of the past games. “In this new version” you can compile your squad and fill it with the characters from all of the previous games in the Tom Clancey series to battle and create the best squad possible.

In the trailer for the new Ubisoft Tom Clancy video game, a disturbing image was presented that disgustingly compares those who stand up for the black lives matter movement by holding up a fist, to the terrorists the player is fighting within the game. This is not an ordinary problem, this is a situation that needs to be talked about so twelve and thirteen-year-old kids are not being brainwashed by these companies. Our country is not in a good place right now. Social injustice issues are a top priority in the minds of many and need to be taken seriously for change to be made. It is truly inspiring to see so many activists participate in many different ways to ensure change, but some do not see the bigger problems. 

Ubisoft has been notified that these actions are unjustifiable, and the trailer was taken down. We need to educate those who know no better, those who are blind to these major issues, and those who are influencing the next generation of educators and role models. Continue to speak up, continue to fight for change, and continue to make a difference.