Following reports of the disappearance of the 15-year-old Brandon Crisp, along with the news media’s angle on the boy’s societal decline due to an addiction to videogames, a child psychologist has voiced his concerns about the desensitizing effects of playing games.

Brandon Crisp went missing from his home in the Southern Ontario city of Barrie, Canada, on Monday Oct 13. Multiple reports state that the child left his home after an argument with his parents which culminated with Brandon’s father, Steve Crisp, confiscating his Xbox 360. Despite air and ground searches, as well as a massive flyer campaign, the boy is yet to be found.

“He left because we took his Xbox away,” said Steve Crisp, who also asserts that his son was losing sleep because he spent so much time playing the mature-rated Call of Duty 4. “This was his addiction,” he added.

Now a child psychologist from the same city, Dr. Ken Marek, has given his opinion on the negative effects of videogames.

“You’re essentially just sitting there, staring at the screen and other aspects of your brain aren’t being exercised. A child could be great at these games, but can’t handle doing fractions in math,” Marek told local paper the Barrie Examiner.

“The real danger of playing video games is when the child isn’t able to differentiate reality from fantasy,” he added. “They get trapped in a mindset that what characters do is fun and OK so it must be the same for us in real life.”

The Barrie Examiner claims that Marek’s chief concern with videogames is how they warp a child’s sense of reality.

Speaking of Brandon’s most-played 360 game, Call of Duty 4, the paper notes that Infinity Ward consulted US marines for the sake of realism and paraphrased Marek as saying that this realism is “enough to convince young players that war is all fun and games, and make violence seem common place.”

I should not write when I’m angry, and I should pick my battles, so I’m going to stay away from this one, and see what you think.

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