NEWSFLASH: Video Games Do Not Cause Pregnancy
August 24, 2005
Some people just deserve a whack up the side of the head with common sense sometimes. Consider the case of Timken High School's student pregnancy rate, in which 13% of the female students* are pregnant. Also consider that the local newspaper there in Akron, Ohio squarely lays the blame for these pregnancies on video games and other related media.
Whose fault is it that more than 13 percent of Timken’s girls are with child? Some would say fault-finding isn’t a fruitful exercise, but in this case, it’s critical. Suspects range from movies, TV and video games to lazy parents and lax discipline. Only one thing is sure: Schools don’t impregnate children.
Do you know what else, Akron? Unless there is some special third-party peripheral of which I'm unaware, video games do not impregnate children either. Perhaps I'm just being grouchy today, but I find it very annoying to see a news source blame video games which, of course, are a collection of inanimate objects that absolutely cannot be responsible for causing pregnancies. If Timken High School wants to know who is impregnating the high school girls, perhaps the school administration should try asking the high school boys.
* I'm aware that the only members of the student population who can become pregnant are the females, but this is a percentage calculated among the total number of female students and not the total number of students overall.
(via Joystiq)