Game Boys don’t kill, water and electricity do

The news is a day or so old, but it still bears mentioning. On the right you will see a picture of Connor O’Keefe, seven years old and deceased.

First written about by tabloids and the general press, followed by Games Industry and Kotaku, different pictures are being painted about the death of the boy. The tabloids give the coverage a sensational title such as “Killed by XMas Game Boy” or other things, but he was electrocuted and died of burns resulting from trying to unplug his Game Boy handheld.

Now, here comes a crucial bit of information that may hold some important perspective regarding the issue. Some of the news coverage of this mentions that Connor just came from swimming in the pool at the time, while others do not mention that little tidbit at all. Note, however, that his mother does mention that the boy knows about the dangers of electricity and electrocution.

All in all, we can take this as a horrible accident given the different factors involved. That being said, does a headline like “Game Boy kills child” smack of anti-game bias, or of shoddy journalism? Either way, there’s one less kid out there, and that’s the worst thing about all of this.

The news is a day or so old, but it still bears mentioning. On the right you will see a picture of Connor O’Keefe, seven years old and deceased.

First written about by tabloids and the general press, followed by Games Industry and Kotaku, different pictures are being painted about the death of the boy. The tabloids give the coverage a sensational title such as “Killed by XMas Game Boy” or other things, but he was electrocuted and died of burns resulting from trying to unplug his Game Boy handheld.

Now, here comes a crucial bit of information that may hold some important perspective regarding the issue. Some of the news coverage of this mentions that Connor just came from swimming in the pool at the time, while others do not mention that little tidbit at all. Note, however, that his mother does mention that the boy knows about the dangers of electricity and electrocution.

All in all, we can take this as a horrible accident given the different factors involved. That being said, does a headline like “Game Boy kills child” smack of anti-game bias, or of shoddy journalism? Either way, there’s one less kid out there, and that’s the worst thing about all of this.