The Warring States of NPF - Video games/Internet blamed for Child Neglect

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Video games/Internet blamed for Child Neglect

Not by the offenders, though. No they had the good sense to plead guilty. It's spokespeople and whatnot that blame the video game addiction.

It's all right here.

Yeah, great. Pretty soon you'll have shady guys on street corners peddling meth and GP. The spokesperson said it, this is extremely rare. The couple are obviously people that have no business having children and would have neglected them anyway. DnD is no WoW.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Article

Michael Straw is an unemployed cashier, and his wife worked for a temporary staffing agency doing warehouse work, according to court records. He received a $50,000 inheritance that he spent on computer equipment and a large plasma television, authorities said.

See, when you have kids, that's not what you should be doing.

Quote:

Police said hospital staff had to shave the head of the girl because her hair was matted with cat urine. The 10-pound girl also had a mouth infection, dry skin and severe dehydration.

Her brother had to be treated for starvation and a genital infection. His lack of muscle development caused him difficulty in walking, investigators said.

Really, I can't understand this at all. Getting so wrapped up in something that you neglect your own children, to such a degree that they have infections, is a pretty good sign that
1) You're addicted,
2) You shouldn't have had children, and
3) You shouldn't have had children.

It's like people don't want to accept personal responsibility for their actions anymore, and they look for any escape possible. I'm sure that they were glad they found something that they could do as a couple and all, but geez...

Quote:

Patrick Killen, spokesman for Nevada Child Abuse Prevention, said video game addiction's correlation to child abuse is "a new spin on an old problem."

"As we become more technologically advanced, there's more distractions," Killen said. "It's easy for someone to get addicted to something and neglect their children. Whether it's video games or meth, it's a serious issue, and (we) need to become more aware of it."

I would disagree with this, but look at what the parents did. Video games aren't as addictive as crack or any other drug, but it is still possible for people to become addicted.

Of course, it's equally possible in my eyes that the couple was just incapable of dealing with having kids, and screwed up in trying to deal with that stress. It's like what George Carlin said in one of his routines. "The main problem with the world today is too many stupid people breeding."

Meh, this is, what, the second global case of child neglect in favor of an MMO? For these two cases, there's countless other parents who play games and take care of their kids just fine.

I mean, I don't even know how many times I'd hear "gotta go, baby's crying," over vent with my old WoW guild. The couple in this story? Yeah, I'm pretty sure they would have lived in squalor and neglected their kids without DnD Online.

More than likely, they would have been out drinking instead. Or at home drinking and then passing out. My point is their idiots and not even hardly an example of normal video game addiction.

Anyway, who wants to start the countdown until what's-his-name shows up and makes this part of his crusade?

Wow...I'm baffled and overly astonished.

To me those events are so f***ing ridiculous that I cannot even give a comment for it. I just can't.

We should ban video games. Clearly they are too addictive for society to deal with them.

While we're at it lets ban crack and meth too. Wait a minute...

Seriously though, lets take all the cases of neglect where video games weren't the 'cause.' Now compare that number to the number of cases where it was. See my point yet?

What are you all getting so riled up over? Clasp your knees tightly and read the article. Nobody is saying, "Look what video games do to people, they should be eliminated." It even says right there that this is a rare case.

ZAK has a point. I mean really it's only the article's title that even says it. Damn guys. What's the big deal.

Well, these quotes...

Quote:

Originally Posted by Article

"They had food; they just chose not to give it to their kids because they were too busy playing video games," Viloria told the Reno Gazette-Journal.

...

Patrick Killen, spokesman for Nevada Child Abuse Prevention, said video game addiction's correlation to child abuse is "a new spin on an old problem."

...

"It's easy for someone to get addicted to something and neglect their children. Whether it's video games or meth, it's a serious issue, and (we) need to become more aware of it."

...could start some real bad problems in the long run, as far as public outcries and knee-jerk reactions are concerned.