Instead of trying to explain the situation, I will let what www.pantagraph.com posted this morning...
"By Associated Press
NEW YORK -- A friend says a 9-year-old New York City boy might have been imitating a video game character when he apparently made a plastic parachute and jumped to his death from his apartment building's roof.
Police say Domori Miles likely cobbled a plastic bag and rope together before flying off the 13-story Brooklyn building Tuesday. The items were found on the ground near his body.
Ten-year-old friend Shakar Murrel says Domori was a fan of the wrestling game "WWE SmackDown vs. Raw" and loved wrestler Jeff Hardy's swan dives.
Stamford, Conn.-based World Wrestling Entertainment expresses sympathy but calls for "a full investigation ... before conclusions are made." It says no "SmackDown vs. Raw" characters jump off buildings or use parachutes.
Domori's mother tells police she had gone to the store."
Source: Pantagraph.com
I feel deeply sorry for the loss of their son. It is most certainly a tragedy to lose a child at such a young age. I can also understand the anger and frustration of the parents and why they would be so quickly to blame anything. I don't think anybody blames them for being upset.
Its alright for the parents to be upset, but the media needs to be more logical when writing these articles. Blaming video games for something any kid anywhere could have done. Forgetting there are tons of toys that involve parachutes, tons of TV shows (including cartoons), movies, books, even pictures that have parachutes, this media outlet decided to blame video games directly. After blaming video games, they point out a wrestling game "SmackDown vs. Raw" which, in the article even points out, contains no characters with parachutes or people jumping off of buildings.
What if it was a lack of supervision? What if the kid had a undiagnosed mental illness? It could be tons of things, yet it seems that only video games are the ones to blame for the child's death. These kind of premature accusations breed nothing but controversy and give video games an even more negative image.
Lets just hope that we can get some more facts on the situation and that major media outlets don't go apeshit on this. Until then...
