Can Video Games Kill You?

Kris Erickson • Mar 10, 2009 • Comments ()

The British government says that they can. A recent advertisement from the Department of Health depicts a child holding a PlayStation controller with the text "Risk an early death" written in bold above the image. This kind of shock imagery is usually reserved for real threats like heroin addiction and driving without your seat belt on, but evidently video games have now joined those things among the greatest dangers to British youth. According to the creators of this ad campaign, it is meant to inform the public about the importance of exercise for children. However, the link between video games and obesity is tenuous at best, with many recent studies showing that video game players have above average health.

While this campaign does seem utterly crazy to our American eyes, the UK has a history of dealing with the games industry in a hamfisted way. Prime Minister Gordon Brown has launched a series of attacks on video games, claiming that they incite violence among young people.

Luckily, representatives from the games industry have stepped up to combat the insanity. The lobby group Tiga has lodged a formal complaint with the Advertising Standards Authority to protest the shocking posters.

"This advert is absurd and insulting in equal measure," said Tiga spokesperson Richard Wilson. “To imply that playing a videogame leads to a premature rendezvous with the Grim Reaper is a non-sequitur of colossal proportions. Alcohol and drug abuse, smoking, obesity and involvement in violent crime are forms of behavior that risk an early death. This advert is offensive to the 30,000 people who work in the UK’s video games industry, particularly the 10,000 who work in games development.”

Sony has also threatened legal action against the creators of the advertisement, which uses a DualShock controller, evidently without the permission of the hardware maker.