Wednesday, January 14, 2009

The Obvious Truth

Videogames are to blame for every teenager’s problems!

This is obviously a ridiculous statement, but some believe it to be true. It seems that every time a troubled teen commits a crime and that teen happens to play videogames, everyone just assumes that there can only be one logical reason: videogames made him do it.

“Did you hear, some boy stole a car and wrecked it after a police chase?”
“He must have learned that from GTA IV…”

A few months ago, a boy accidentally shot himself in the head with a rifle and people claimed it was because since he played Halo, he must have been pretending he was in the game and would respawn. It most certainly wasn’t because he was a young boy who hadn’t taken gun safety courses. Who knew looking down the barrel of a gun and pulling the trigger would result in death?

Another case just came up where a 17 year old shot both his parents in the head, killing his mother, because they wouldn’t let him play Halo (story here). The judge stated that he firmly believes that the teen wasn’t aware that what he was doing would result in his parents’ death. This is simply ignorance on a level that astounds me. People need to stop deflecting their responsibilities and own up to their failures. If videogames aren’t appropriate for kids, the parents need to step up. When the next game comes out where the main character single-handedly kills thousands of evil creatures, maybe you shouldn’t buy that game for little 8 year old Timmy. Games have ratings for a reason.


The father who was shot in the head by his son said that his son walked into their bedroom and asked his parents to close their eyes and wait for a surprise. Where in any of the Halo games does Master Chief go into his parents’ bedroom and shoot them? Time to face reality- you’re just a crappy parent.

1 comment:

BLaZE said...

wow, after reading that article I wish they had the death penalty. What a waste of space.

Why doesn't anyone blame voilent movies anymore? is that too 1990's? Seems like everything is video games. Both have restriction warnings for a reason.