Missing Teen Leads To Misplaced Video Game Bashing

from the it's-not-the-video-game's-fault dept

Teenagers have a long history of running away after getting into arguments with their family, but throw in the fact that the argument was over a video game and suddenly you've got a big press story in which the press can slam video games as being evil. As you may or may not be aware, there's a story up in Canada concerning 15-year-old Brandon Crisp who ran away from home after an argument with his parents concerning how much time he was spending playing video games. Rather than suggesting that it may have been the argument that drove him from home, his parents are blaming the evils of video gaming, with his father saying:

"I'm worried he has met someone online through this game. It could be organized crime or someone involved in Internet gambling. Pedophiles can stalk kids through these games."

His mother apparently believes that he was taken by another video game player. So the press is having a field day, with the Toronto Globe & Mail running an editorial slamming pretty much everything to do with video games as being secretly addictive, and even claiming that video games are worse than drug or alcohol addiction, because parents and teachers encourage kids to play video games.

The problem is more insidious in some ways than drugs or alcohol because society approves of the basic activity. Parents don't bring home a case of beer or a vial of cocaine for their children but they do buy the computers that their children use. Schools demand that students use computers for their homework assignments.

Perhaps it's not surprising, though it is depressing, in this day and age that a newspaper opinion writer seems to simply lump all computer use together and automatically assumes that "video game addiction" must be the cause of the problem here, when that's not at all confirmed in any way. To support the opinion piece, the Globe quotes the guy who's been pushing to get video game addiction declared an official addiction, not noting that, as the guy who popularized it, he would stand to have his practice benefit greatly from getting to treat all those so-called "addicts." And, more importantly, the Globe article, which mentions the guy's crusade, ignores the fact that he was shot down by the American Medical Association which noted there is "nothing to suggest" that video game addiction "is a complex physiological disease state."

But why let any of that get in the way of a good opinion piece?

Filed Under: blame, brandon crisp, canada, runaways, video games