Beat-up news article is a beat-up

Once again, the mainstream media is banging on about how Gaming Is A Threat To The Youth Of Today, complete with fabricated quotes and comparisons to zombism.

So it seems both the BBC and the Daily Mail have picked up and run with that classic alarmist concept, that games are a danger to children. This time, with an interesting new spin - that kids are 'getting stoned' and are 'becoming zombies' due to late night gaming sessions and sleep deprivation. That's right folks, apparently there is now a real and terrible danger lurking inside your console.

Robert Hart-Fletcher of the charity Kids and Media, is quoted in the anti-gaming article, saying "Gaming is a phenomenon that's been around quite a while. Now we are starting to see the effects in behaviour of young people. In the past people had genuine relationships with empathy and compassion which has been replaced by this virtual relationship where they are not necessarily having to show empathy or compassion. That's starting perhaps to change the way they interact on a day to day basis."

There's a slight hitch with the article, even when you put aside the alarmist nature of it all, in that Hart-Fletcher has now come out to claim these quotes have been 'completely fabricated'. He's gone so far as to say that he is a proponent of gaming for children, provided they're suitable and played in moderation.

And the established news services wonder why their customer base is turning away from them ..

Thanks, Computer and Video Games.