Gennaro Castaldo watch: Bully

Of all the places you'd expect Gennaro Castaldo to crop up, who would have put money on him tailing a piece in the Swindon Advertiser, reacting to a group of schoolchildren's campaign to have a video game banned?

The kids are unhappy that Canis Canem Edit was available in their local HMV. They all wrote to the manager, and got no response, so instead they hopped on a train to ask their MP about it up in Westminster.

Gennaro, mind you, says we shouldn't be alarmed by the game:

HMV spokesman Gennaro Castaldo said the game was meant to empathise with the victims of bullying in showing them fighting back.

He also said that the company had never banned a game in order to maintain its customers' free choice, but that controversial games such as Canis Canem Edit are not usually promoted in store, meaning customers would have to search for them.

Ah! So it seems to be an official line at HMV then that the correct response to violence is more violence - presumably it's only a matter of time before Nipper is replaced by one of those jaws-on-legs dogs that perform the role of accounts overdue for drug dealers.

We're also entranced by this idea that HMV doesn't ban things because it wishes to maintain the customer's right to choose. Where's the hardcore porn section in our local store, then?

More to the point, isn't the same HMV which banned The Rolling Stones back catalogue from its Canadian branches because it was having a hissy fit at the Stones doing a deal with a rival store?

And how touching is the "well, customers have to look for it, so that's alright, then" defence - perhaps something drug dealers could look into: "Nah, I'm not a pusher, but if the kids find the heroin filed under 'H' in the 'Drugs for sale' cabinet, what can I do?"