A the videogames They have not always been seen with a good face or as one of the best products that exists in society. Unfortunately, it is a situation that has been repeated for decades, although it must also be recognized that something else has already been established.
Even so, you probably know someone who is not very in favor of playing video games and media outside our hobby have not helped much to improve the image. You just have to think, how many times have you heard the phrase “go out into the street to get the fresh air“? Even I have come across people who consider that our profession of talking about them is a waste of time and that they consider them something harmful.
All this is related to a terrible event that occurred a few decades ago and that gave rise to a very important change in the industry.
Do video games cause epileptic seizures? This is how they accused Nintendo several decades ago
For this peculiar story we have to go back to 1993, a time when Nintendo was going through a splendid moment thanks to the success that Super Nintendo was reaping. However, it has practically been 30 years since one of the issues of the newspaper Daily Mail He charged hard against the company.
Specifically, it happened in its edition of January 7 of that year in which the headline “NINTENDO FACE HEALTH STORM“(Nintendo faces a health storm) because they accused the big N that during the Christmas holidays there were cases of children who experienced seizures while playing video games. What’s more, even a doctor they interviewed dominated this event as “You go to Nintendo“, damaging the image of the company and the video game sector.
The word must have spread like wildfire, because two days later The Sun newspaper did not want to be less. That led him to post an even more damaging and sensationalist headlinebecause it literally said “Nintendo Killed My Son!“(Nintendo killed my son). This was certainly a very serious accusation that did not go unnoticed by the PR team, which at the time was in a war with SEGA over ads featuring both companies.
Without a doubt, it was a pretty hard blow for Nintendo that this accusation appeared in such a popular newspaper. In it you could read that the victim was a 14-year-old boy named Jasminder Bassi, who suffered an epileptic seizure and died after swallowing his own vomit when a few minutes earlier I was playing Super Mario Bros. on the NES from some of his friends. Because of all this, Rani, the mother of the deceased child, assured the following:
My son was fit, strong and healthy, but he died watching TV. I have no doubt that it was the Nintendo game that caused him to have the attack.
He also added that the video game industry should take more precautions about it and above all show warnings to parents about the epileptic risks that people could suffer while they spend their time playing video games. This gave rise to a term called “Nintendo Epilepsy“against which the great N had to fight.
More than anything because it didn’t take long for more similar cases to come to light in other English publications that spoke of more children who had suffered epileptic seizures. Without going any further, to a 13-year-old girl the same thing happened to him that little Jasminder while he was playing Super Mario Bros.
As a result of this whole situation, certain measures were taken in the United Kingdom and, above all, it was decided that warnings were included in video game boxes that they mention the possibility that these could cause convulsions or blackouts caused by the flashes of light. In the same way, it was added that people who had suffered similar cases before should quickly see a doctor before continuing to play video games.
Given the seriousness of the matter, a few months later medical studies began to emerge examining the type of situations in which these cases occurred. Thus, they ruled that video games only cause seizures in people who are already predisposed to epilepsy, although they recommended that certain actions could be carried out to reduce the risk, such as playing a few meters from the screen or even wearing glasses. of sun during the games.
Even so, It wasn’t enough to calm the waters. almost a decade later A Louisiana woman sued Nintendo because her 30-year-old son died after suffering a seizure and hitting his head on a table while playing on his Nintendo 64, all after spending eight hours a day in front of a screen. for six days a week.
It seems that the warning on Nintendo boxes that some people could have seizures or blackouts caused by flashes of light while playing the game was not enough. Added to this was a warning to see a doctor if you suspected a seizure and also to stop playing immediately if you experienced any symptoms.
In fact, in 2008 the newspaper The Sun wanted to get a slice of y charged Nintendo once again. This time asking the company to ban the sale of Mario Kart: Double Dash!!Super Mario Sunshine or Metroid Prime, due to the flashes they gave off, as the head of clinical neuropsychology at Aston University, Professor Graham Harding, stated:
We need guidelines like the ones on the stream to make sure video games with flashing light patterns that have the potential to cause a seizure are removed.
Video game addiction considered a mental illness
Although Nintendo has been the main protagonist of this story, it has also other video games have been blamed of being those responsible for other atrocities. That was the case ten years ago in Clydebank, Scotland, when a 13-year-old boy slit the throat of a friend he met playing Gears of War 3 online after the two had an argument about Xbox games.
The prosecutor who handled the case claimed that violent video games played online could be the cause of his behavior. In short, the WHO (World Health Organization) wanted to go on stage in 2018 noting that video game addiction is a mental illness which occurs when gaming is given more priority than other matters or when you spend too much time playing without being able to control it in any way.
According to the WHO, the behavior has to be very evident for at least 12 months for it to be diagnosed as a disease, unless the symptoms are severe, in which case the period would be shortened. For this very reason, in the United Kingdom private clinics were established, although there are more countries with regulations in place to prevent these events.
For example in South Korea Access to online video games is prohibited for all those children under 16 years of age who try to play between midnight and 06:00 in the morning. Furthermore, in Japan users are warned if they spend too many hours playing per month, while on China the hours that children can play the most popular titles are limited.
However, Oxford University does not fully agree with all of these claims. This is how he tried to make it clear in a study in which he decreed that children may be perfectly capable of play video games and combine them with any of your daily tasks. For this, the study was carried out with children ranging from eight to 18 years old, which led to the determination that boys were more likely to play for many hours compared to girls. This was stated by the researcher Killian Mullan
People think that children are addicted to technology and remain in front of screens 24/7 to the exclusion of other activities, and now we know that this is not the case.
Our findings show that technology is being used for, and in some cases perhaps supporting, other activities, such as homework, and is not eliminating them.
Just like adults do, children spread their use of digital technology throughout the day while doing other things.
Today people are already somewhat more aware of this issue and what video games are. At least the positive that can be drawn from this matter is that helped companies place greater emphasis on risks that can be suffered when playing video games, without neglecting the fact that there may be other factors that trigger the symptoms.
That does not mean that the headline of The Sun seriously damaged the image of Nintendo, especially at that time 30 years ago when it was waging such a tough war against a SEGA that at that time had launched its Master System and Mega Drive on the market.
