World of Warcraft or Dad: The cause of boy's collapse

I can hear it now. The horrors of video games, the internet, and Massively Multiplayer Online games (MMO). And the fuel of this latest round of the fire comes from Sweden. Thanks to a 15 year old and his obsession with World of Warcraft (WoW).

It seems that the kid, and several of his friends, spent 20 hours straight playing the game. They barely ate or slept, and the kid in question collapsed after the 20 hour mark. When brought to the hospital he was diagnosed with lack of sleep, lack of food and over-concentration - but he will be fine.

The father in question said

"...he now plans to limit his son's computer time and urged other parents to do the same."

Well isn't that jumping into the fire and saying it's hot. Where was he during this 20 hour period when his son was playing? Watching television? Asleep?

The game is not the problem here. Like a weapon, tool, or anything it exists but its what people do with it that makes it potentially dangerous. If this father was paying attention to his kid we would have seen what was going on long before there was a need for the hospital. If he was an involved parent he would have checked in on his kid, maybe watched the game and been involved in the playing. Maybe he would have come in at 10pm and said it was time for bed and made sure his son went to bed. And in the morning looked in on what the kid was doing.

As I said in my post Danger for kids on the internet

"It's not enough to just watch what children are doing on the internet. We all, uncles and aunts, brothers and sisters, parents and grandparents, need to be involved. We all need to explain why some things are wrong, and what the history of these things are. Because if we don't kids will use them, act on them, to their detriment."

The detriment in this case was a child that pushed himself beyond limits his body could stand. That's not the fault of the internet or WoW. It is directly and solely the fault of the father in this case. And blaming anything and anyone else is just trying to deflect the responsibility of the parent on someone else. It's seeking sympathy when none is deserved.

In this case the MMO is no different than a gun in the house. A parent that takes no precaution, that has no involvement in their child, is asking that child to shot themselves. That may sound harsh, but it cannot be more harsh than having to take your unconscious child to the hospital.

Let's not look for scapegoats in this holiday season. There are many things that are inappropriate for children on the internet and in some video games. But the real danger comes from a parent that is uninvolved and uncaring enough to let that child get access to, and abuse, the tool in question.

I remember being told as a child

"Don't run with scissors"

Today it seems that everyone wants to blame the scissors, not the child running. And god forbid someone blame the parent for not telling the kid to not do it.