{"id":1526022,"date":"2022-06-22T15:49:16","date_gmt":"2022-06-22T19:49:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=1526022"},"modified":"2022-06-22T15:49:20","modified_gmt":"2022-06-22T19:49:20","slug":"florida-dem-promotes-childrens-game-with-a-sex-problem-to-court-voters","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/florida-dem-promotes-childrens-game-with-a-sex-problem-to-court-voters\/","title":{"rendered":"Florida Dem Promotes \u2018Children\u2019s Game With a Sex Problem\u2019 To Court Voters"},"content":{"rendered":"<aside class=\"mashsb-container mashsb-main mashsb-stretched\"><div class=\"mashsb-box\"><div class=\"mashsb-count mash-medium\" style=\"&quot;\"><div class=\"counts mashsbcount\">24<\/div><span class=\"mashsb-sharetext\">SHARES<\/span><\/div><div class=\"mashsb-buttons\"><a class=\"mashicon-facebook mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/sharer.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.conservativenewsdaily.net%2Fbreaking-news%2Fflorida-dem-promotes-childrens-game-with-a-sex-problem-to-court-voters%2F\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Facebook<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-twitter mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/intent\/tweet?text=&amp;url=https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=1526022&amp;via=ConservNewsDly\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Twitter<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-subscribe mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"#\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Subscribe<\/span><\/a><div class=\"onoffswitch2 mash-medium mashsb-noshadow\" style=\"display:none\"><\/div><\/div>\n            <\/div>\n                <div style=\"clear:both\"><\/div><\/aside>\n            <!-- Share buttons by mashshare.net - Version: 4.0.47--><div>\n\t\t\t<span class=\"article-category\"><a class=\"\" href=\"https:\/\/freebeacon.com\/democrats\/\">Democrats<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"article-excerpt\">Val Demings hopes &#8216;Gamers for Demings&#8217; posts on Chinese app TikTok will take down Marco Rubio<\/p>\n<figure class=\"post-thumbnail-container relative lg:mr-24 w-full my-4 mb-8\"><figcaption class=\"absolute text-white p-4 w-full text-right text-xs bottom-0 bg-black opacity-75\">\n\t\t\t\tRep. Val Demings (D., Fla.) \/ Getty Images\t\t\t<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>\t\t\t<span class=\"text-gray text-xs md:text-lg\"><a href=\"https:\/\/freebeacon.com\/author\/collin-anderson\/\" title=\"Posts by Collin Anderson\" class=\"author url fn text-red-700\" rel=\"author\">Collin Anderson<\/a> \u2022 June 22, 2022 3:35 pm<\/span><\/p><\/div>\n<div>\n<p><span>Florida Democratic Senate hopeful Val Demings is promoting a popular &#8220;children&#8217;s game with a sex problem&#8221; to court voters in her race against Republican incumbent Marco Rubio.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>Demings in March used Chinese app TikTok to share the <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.tiktok.com\/@valdemings\/video\/7073259137135545646?is_copy_url=1&#038;is_from_webapp=v1&#038;lang=en\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><span>first installment<\/span><\/a><span> of her &#8220;Gamers for Demings&#8221; series, which used the children&#8217;s game Roblox to depict a virtual version of the Democrat running through Florida. The post came just weeks after the BBC <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.bbc.com\/news\/technology-60314572\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><span>highlighted<\/span><\/a><span> the game&#8217;s &#8220;sex problem.&#8221; Roblox\u2014which two-thirds of U.S. children between the ages of 9 and 12 reportedly have played as of 2020\u2014came under fire for hosting user-generated sex games known as &#8220;condos,&#8221; where gamers&#8217; avatars can have virtual sex. In one instance, the BBC reported, a &#8220;naked man, wearing just a dog collar&#8221; and a leash, was &#8220;led across the floor by a woman in a bondage outfit&#8221; as a man &#8220;wearing a Nazi uniform&#8221; looked on.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>Demings&#8217;s decision to use Roblox and TikTok to promote her campaign shows how Democrats are widening their political strategy to use unorthodox means of communication. Demings is far from the only Democrat on TikTok, a Chinese-owned app that has sparked bipartisan security concerns. Fellow Democratic Senate candidate Tim Ryan (Ohio) has posted videos of himself <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.tiktok.com\/@reptimryan\/video\/6827583621860314374?referer_url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.nytimes.com%2F&#038;referer_video_id=6827583621860314374&#038;refer=embed\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><span>lip-syncing<\/span><\/a><span> on the platform, and Sens. Jon Ossoff (D., Ga.) and Bernie Sanders (I., Vt.) are also active users. In February, President Joe Biden <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.wsj.com\/articles\/tiktok-security-risk-china-biden-11643807751\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><span>moved to address<\/span><\/a><span> TikTok&#8217;s security risks\u2014but he&#8217;s also used influencers on the app to sway public opinion, even inviting some to <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.tiktok.com\/@bennydrama7\/video\/6994499025424682246\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><span>film in the White House<\/span><\/a><span>.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>After Demings&#8217;s first Roblox-themed TikTok post, a popular Roblox news account on Twitter <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/Roblox_RTC\/status\/1502010791398191105\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><span>praised the Democrat<\/span><\/a><span>, asking if a &#8220;Robloxian&#8221; could &#8220;be Florida&#8217;s next senator.&#8221; Demings&#8217;s communications director <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/slaterchrisj\/status\/1502011528928710656?s=20&#038;t=Jbq6uSduteuHBzMQ2h1xAg\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><span>responded<\/span><\/a><span> to say the campaign was &#8220;proud to launch Gamers for Demings,&#8221; and the Democrat went on to share two more Roblox posts in the following months. One, which Demings posted in April, shows her <a href=\"https:\/\/www.tiktok.com\/@valdemings\/video\/7083220402054516010\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">blasting off into space<\/a> on a virtual rocket. Another, shared on June 11, depicts a virtual Demings <a href=\"https:\/\/www.tiktok.com\/@valdemings\/video\/7107998733350047019?is_from_webapp=1&#038;sender_device=pc&#038;web_id=7111788905189344814\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">dancing with LGBTQ flags<\/a> under a &#8220;Happy Pride Month&#8221; banner. That post includes the hashtags &#8220;PrideMonth,&#8221; &#8220;roblox,&#8221; &#8220;LGBTQ,&#8221; &#8220;foryourpride,&#8221; &#8220;fyp,&#8221; and &#8220;valdemings.&#8221;<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>It&#8217;s unclear how Demings expects to use a game most popular with preteens to attract voters. Her campaign did not return a request for comment.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>In addition to concerns over Roblox&#8217;s sex problem, the game has faced criticism for exploiting child labor. Roblox allows its users to create, share, and play their own games within the Roblox platform. As a result, the<\/span><i><span>\u00a0Guardian<\/span><\/i><span> reported in January, Roblox has <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/games\/2022\/jan\/09\/the-trouble-with-roblox-the-video-game-empire-built-on-child-labour\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><span>made millions<\/span><\/a><span> off of the work of children with no formal contracts in place.\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>Demings is widely favored to face Rubio in November but will first have to emerge from an August primary race. Neither candidate has a strong financial advantage\u2014both Demings and Rubio have raised roughly $30 million and hold roughly $13 million on hand as of March 31. Rubio is polling at 49 percent, 9 points better than Demings&#8217;s 40 percent, according to the <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.realclearpolitics.com\/epolls\/2022\/senate\/fl\/florida-senate-rubio-vs-demings-7382.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><span><em>RealClearPolitics<\/em> polling average<\/span><\/a><span>.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Democrats Val Demings hopes &#8216;Gamers for Demings&#8217; posts on Chinese app TikTok will take down Marco Rubio  Rep. Val Demings (D., Fla.) \/ Getty Images<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":176,"featured_media":2315279,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mo_disable_npp":"","fifu_image_url":"","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1526022","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1526022","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/176"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1526022"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1526022\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2315279"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1526022"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1526022"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1526022"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}