Comments on: Girl Starves to Death as Parents Raise Virtual Child

By: Jilly

Jilly — Fri, 24 Sep 2010 13:20:25 +0000

“The mentally unstable will be mentally unstable. Even without the media that is gaming, people will find ways to hurt, both directly and indirectly, each other.”

Couldn’t have put it better myself. Cases like this are dreadful and the fact that it actually resulted in the death of the child makes it that much worse. A similar case happened here in the UK recently, a mother became obsessed with a game and allowed her two dogs to starve to death, and only fed her children on food that didn’t need cooking or any other preparation. The children were living in squalor, with the bodies of their pets rotting in the dining room but they’ve since been taken into care and charges brought against the mother. The game itself was not to blame, nor are games inherently bad or damaging. If they were, there would be very few people who could play video games without going off the rails and this backlash against games in particular is quite ridiculous and unhelpful.

I don’t think anyone will know for certain whether it was wilful neglect but to be honest, I don’t much care whether it was or it wasn’t. I hope the mother gets the help she quite clearly needs but I’m far more concerned about the children. And it isn’t as though neglect only happens when it hits the headlines. It’s happening all the time, which is why I do a lot of fundraising for children charities. Neglect is happening all the time and quite frankly, banning video games is not going to stop it.

It is a valid statement to say that the addictive nature of some video games CAN cause social harm. It is not a valid statement to say that the addictive nature of some video games WILL cause social harm.

By: Rev Nugent

Rev Nugent — Tue, 15 Jun 2010 16:18:42 +0000

This is from JO-JO for Shawn as it is your right to you’r apinyon on this it is our right to our’s gameing is fine I Cyber my self but to forget about the life needs of yourself or you’r fellow man or child is a sign of a mental illness or at the lest a hard addection and as such should not be confused or lumpt in with standerd gameing practice or casual game players. You’r right doun’t blame the game .

By: Shawn

Shawn — Mon, 14 Jun 2010 20:25:48 +0000

It is terrible what has happened in this case, but there is no need to go on a McCarthy-style crackdown on gamers. Thousands of people game, and only a handful do this or any other thing. The mentally unstable will be mentally unstable. Even without the media that is gaming, people will find ways to hurt, both directly and indirectly, each other. Ever since the creation of video games, violent crimes have gone down overall. So please don’t come around blaming all problems that one gamer caused on all video games.

By: JO-JO

JO-JO — Fri, 04 Jun 2010 15:03:59 +0000

What will come next a man marring a video game …Oh yah that has happined already …Maybe some one losing a job because they play video gomes to much oh that hapined already to … I gess the world wont see the problum till they find some vedeophile smow dead in front of his computer because he forgot he needed to eat or drink. I hate that a child had to die but agian those two should not have had a chance to breed and polute the gean pool.

By: Vanessa

Vanessa — Mon, 22 Mar 2010 22:39:10 +0000

I was pretty shocked when I read about this news. It made me feel sick to my stomach, sad and angry all at the same time. It’s incredible that something like this would have happened to this child. I think this is a clear example of how these video games can get out of hand. But, I also think it’s an example of how people don’t want to deal with reality and prefer to escape from it. I just think it’s really sad for something like this to happen.