In their introduction to this collection of writings on children's screen entertainment, Bazalgette and Buckingham raise the tantalizing and controversial notion that "it is both pointless and damaging to exclude all violent and disturbing material from children's cultural experience" (3). Aiding this assertion, they raise issues of audience reception: perhaps children do not ingest the material presented to them 'as is,' but rather have their own way of (re)interpreting what happens on the screens in front of them. Similarly, they remind us that adults are the creators of these sources of children's entertainment: perhaps the content of computer games (and other media) can tell us much about what adults think children should be exposed to, as a tool to introduce them to the world and the way it works.
From my reading of Civilization, it would seem that adults want children to know about the sexism, racism, and general lack of equality in the world. But I have to raise an argument against this simplistic notion of teaching reality: in light of the way things are, isn't it that much more important to teach alternative visions of what the world could be like? Why not foster the considerable imaginations of children to help them conceive of a world where there is no sexism or racism, nor other forms of social exclusion and prejudice?