20 Year Old Student Dies Due To Xbox: The Sun’s At It Again
The Sun (shock horror) is today reporting the death of a 20 year old student who died due to deep vein thrombosis. The headline is simply ‘Death by Xbox’’ and is clearly a negative (yet highly misinformed) look on video games. This story is the second negative article to be published by The Sun which paints video games in a bad light.
The student (named Chris Staniforth) played his Xbox for stints of 12 hours a day on games such as Halo. The father of Chris Staniforth had the following to say on the death of his son:
‘’ He lived for his Xbox. I never dreamed he was in any danger.
“As a parent you think playing computer games can’t do them any harm because you know what they are doing. Kids all over the country are playing these games for long periods – they don’t realise it could kill them.”
It’s clear to see the sheer level of ignorance on display, while some could be excused as mourning for his son the statements still made it to print by a very anti-games newspaper (at least ant-video games when it suits them).
The artlice goes on to highlight Chris was jobless by saying:
‘’Chris collapsed seconds after telling a friend how he had been experiencing a strange sensation in his chest.
The pair were chatting outside a JobCentre where Chris had an interview.’’
The JobCentre part could of easily been left out but of course this helped convey the negative image of video games, The Sun is famous for this kind of thing as well as telling bare faced lies. The article further goes on to show Chris was a healthy guy with no health issues what so ever and a clean health history. His father had more to say which comes off as slightly less negative, for example:
‘’ Over the years Chris had a whole range of different consoles, everything from PlayStations to Xboxes. I’m not for one minute blaming the manufacturer of Xbox. It isn’t their fault that people use them for so long. But I want to highlight the dangers that can arise. Playing on it for so long is what killed him – and I don’t want another child to die.”
The Sun also felt the need to force in the fact Chris mother and father had divorced (which is completely not relevant to the story). His father’s closing words on the subject are as follows:
“There’s anxiety about obesity and children not doing anything other than looking at computer screens. It’s pretty unhealthy.”
The Sun has clearly shown its negative stance on video games (and obsession sensationalism with) and has tried its best to give off negative portrayals of gamers (hence the pointless JobCentre name drop) which is quite odd for a paper that features a game section each Friday, granted its awful but never the less it’s there. The Sun seems to neglect the issue that this was a case of a person lifestyle and choices, it also neglects to talk about parents taking responsibility for their off spring and educating them on life matters and a healthy life style….instead of using things (in this case video games) as a scapegoat.
Then again this is The Sun were talking about who have a long history of telling lies….just ask any football fan who was around during the Hillsborough disaster.
The Sun Report Cane Be Found Here
I’m so glad we speak English in Canada and not American. Seeing the word Centre spelled like Center makes me cry inside every time.
We meed to rebel against this bullcrap. Nothing to do with the xbox, only himself and parents can be blamed, why should everyone else suffer with bad media just because some kid doesn’t have self control.
I feel embarrassed to live in the UK, where it’s the highest selling newspaper. Just take comfort in the fact that The Sun is considered a joke.
but think of the millions of ignorant people who will read it…its alarming…a chain reaction this will cause…
I don’t see the big deal about what the Sun wrote.
Yes, it is a lie, and yes, they are going to get away with it. But think about it’s target demographic. Most likely people who A) are already educated enough about videogames to know what they’re reading is horse crap, or B) conservative middle aged America who never picked up a controller, and have no reason to, whether The Sun degrades them or supports them.
Things like FOX News spreading lies is a bigger worry. Their audience is much larger and although most (if not most, they should) know that FOX just outright lies about most everything.
Just ignore the offbeat mainstream media and continue enjoying your games, but the article does have a resounding truth in the mix, be safe and healthy! Don’t play too long!
I went to the art center yesterday! It was so fun, I stood in the center of the room and just looked at all the fine work. I then noticed something in the center of one picture, right in the center of the center was a center…..
Bwahaha! Canadians think they speak proper English, eh? Those hosers are brutal at it! Nothing but a bunch of knobs that horked tidbits of broken English from their pathetic unknown queen.
maybe a chain reaction down the job centre or the social club with all the other ignorant idiots! the sun have been printing stories much worse than this one for years. every gta launch is greeted with a slew of nonsensicle, anti-everything, made up rubbish! even when real things happen the sun have no problems with printing clearly photoshoped images, and made up stories to fill out the real stories, make them more exciting and generally more palatable for their almost unanamously uneducated ingrate fan base. dont feel embarrassed to live here, its awesome, we just have to take these tabloids and the people who read it with a massive truck load of salt!
This is really clutching at straws, I saw a story on discovery where a woman died from drinking to much water….SO BEWARE WATER IS DEADLY !!!!!!!!! Self control was the issue here, everything in moderation and you will be just fine.
I would like to say thanks to the intelligent writer of this article. I was a friend of chris’s since school and was deeply offended by the lies spread in todays paper. The truth is that this was a random DVT attack on a healthy person which occasionally happens. I also know Chris hadn’t played Xbox on the day he died which is why this is mental. I have posted this link on my facebook. Hopefully his friends who believed the lies will see sense. Thanks again!
I hear that joining the Military kills also, so we should ban the Military completely. Forget xbox joining the police force lead to early alcoholism and even suicide so we should ban the police. Oh those dumb naked monkeys always cherry picking reality.
[...] [...]
It says that he played video games a lot but then it says he did trying to find a job seams to me searching for a job is what killed him should of been playing more games would still be living.
I’m not really interested in placing blame on anything; It simply is an unfortunate event.
I however didn’t know what deep vein thrombosis (turns out it’s a fancy way to say blood clot) was so I took it upon myself to find out.
http://www.ahrq.gov/consumer/bloodclots.htm
stupid coment “kevink262″ .. and keep the jokes for real comedians, you suck at it
The kid DID die from playing too many videogeames… this article seems like a little child crying about their favorite pasttime. Yes, if you play videogames 10 hours a day, you PROBABLY WILL DIE. Wake up already.
Xbox doesn’t kill, but being obsessed or maybe even addicted to video gaming maybe?
Where is the line between normal healthy behaviour and addicted obsessed compulsions? MAybe you shoul read this site and educate yourself more. I read lots of denial on this site, which is part of any addiction, hmmmmm.
http://www.anonymous-addiction-self-help.com/
check it out please for a moment or two.
Hey Glenn! If you’re going to try and act smart least spell words like ‘should’ in the correct way.
And where is this ‘denial’? As far as I’m aware you don’t know anyone from this site and thus have no idea about people’s life styles and such. I suggest you stop being such a judgemental human, unless of course you’re addicted to it.
I love when the media gets on their high-horse about stuff like this. It’s convenient how they seem to gloss over the fact you’re just as likely to get DVT whilst reading a book, surfing the internet or sat in a lengthy traffic jam. It’s one of those things. But obviously, video games make it worse – right?
It’s the person’s thought. Not the video game’s. The video game is a medium for people to have a t least some kind of fun after a day’s head ache. Getting addicted to it is a different thing.
This is the site created to be of benefit to gamers – http://www.take-time-out.info – I only wish i new this could happen, and could have prevented it. please take a look – thank you.