Boy found dead, parents blamed Call of Duty and video game addiction

November 5th, 2008 Posted in General Nintendo, News, Written by Valay Brandon Crisp, a young boy, had been missing up until today when he was found dead. Brandon ran away from his home after his parents took away his Xbox 360. His parents took possession of the console after they decided Brandon had become addicted to Call of Duty 4. Initially, Brandon’s parents believed that the boy’s disappearance was somehow related to his addiction to video games. It was only after investigators analyzed Brandon’s Xbox 360 analyzed that the link between video games and his disappearance were no longer tied together.

“It’s still being analyzed a little further, but at this point we have no reason to believe there is any connection to date between the Xbox and his disappearance,” Sgt. Goodbrand

Dr. David Walsh of the National Institute on Media and the Family commented on the situation and strongly states that video game companies do not want to address video game addiction.

“I don’t think [video game companies] want to touch addiction with a 10-foot pole. It raises all sorts of liability issues for them. And my interpretation is that their strategy is to ignore it and hope it will go away. If you talk to front-line counsellors in places like universities they’ll tell you that this is a huge issue. The way people are viewing this is changing quickly.”