Iran’s parliament has voted to reject answers by Minister of Culture and Islamic Guidance, Abbas Salehi, with regards to computer and digital games, considering his explanations as unsatisfactory.

Iran PressIran news: After hearing Minister of Culture and Islamic Guidance, Abbas Salehi's response to the questions, Iran’s parliament voted its' dissatisfaction with the Minister's answers about the issue of oversight and monitoring of digital and computer games. 80 MPs said they were satisfied by the answers provided by the minister, 83 MPs were not satisfied, and four abstained from voting.

According to an Iran Press report, 198 parliamentarians were present at the time of voting. 

Regretting the dominant presence of foreigners in digital game market, the representative of the people of Mashhad in Iran's parliament Nasrollah Pejmanfar said: "A cultural coup has happened in Iran."

Pejmanfar added: "Unfortunately, 86 percents of the digital game market in Iran belongs to foreigners. They dominate the digital game market."

The MP for Mashhad added: "Digital games have a very significant effect on the development of behaviour and personality of young people and children. These games not only provide foreigners with significant revenues, but they have  also become an anti-social and an anti-cultural tool, and very often result in a disconnect between parents and children, with children 'distancing themselves' from their parents."

Meanwhile, Minister of Culture and Islamic Guidance, Abbas Salehi in response to Pejmanfar's question, said that in the area of digital games oversight and monitoring, fifteen publications have license. Also the license is awarded  to publications after some specific inquiries have been made.

"The sufficient monitoring over digital games is on process, and the monitoring process goes on for seven days after its' publication," Salehi concluded.

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