A SOUTHAMPTON man is warning parents of a video game that allows children to imitate the "incredibly violent" Squid Game series.

Dan Cunningham said he witnessed his partner's six-year-old niece running around with a knife and being shot at on Roblox.

The Lordshill resident says the game, which has a PEGI rating of 7+, is "teaching kids that it is okay to do this", and that "it could become a serious problem".

Squid Game is a Korean dystopian drama, which features scenes of intense violence, gore and bloodshed.

 

Squid Game

Squid Game

 

The characters compete in a series of games to win large sums of money – but the price of failure is death.

"I've seen my partner's niece on Roblox, and it imitates the whole series, which I've seen and is incredibly violent," said Mr Cunningham.

"The avatars have got knives, you can hear the booming gunshots, particularly in the 'red light, green light' game.

"In the third episode of the series, there is a massacre and they can play that in Roblox. All the lights flicker and players go round killing each other.

"It shouldn't be in a child's game – Roblox is a bit like Minecraft – and I think the graphics and gunshots are absolutely disgusting."

Mr Cunningham said he knows some schools have sent letters to parents after pupils were seen imitating Squid Game in the playground.

"Manhunt was banned because of what it represented, so this should be very closely monitored too," he said.

Constabularies and councils across the country have issued warnings on the series, which beat Bridgerton to achieve the biggest series launch in Netflix history.

Hampshire Police and Southampton City Council have both said they will not be sending out a warning to parents.