Media Watch: Puritan Double-Standard Seeks Burnout Paradise

Lessons for mainstream media when dealing with video games - No: 21 - utterly missing the point is good. CBS' Cindy Hsu recently took time to point out that when playing a video game online, against other people who could post images of themselves, well, lordy, who'd'a guessed it, but those other people can't be controlled!?

Cindy 'reported' that "Najee Kennedy is 12 years old and loves the Playstation 3 game "Burnout Paradise." He plays against strangers he only knows by username and when he causes someone to crash, a webcam takes a snapshot of the player's reaction.

"It was going great, until an alarming incident happened.

"'I took him down and his picture just popped up,' Najee said.

When asked what he saw in the picture, Najee responded, 'His butt.'"

No way? Yes, apparently, way. SPOnG is appalled too. Like Nancy, we can't see anything wrong with causing someone to crash their car, sending it barrelling into walls or tumbling into canyons. But we are stunned by the fact that you can see someone's, well, botty.

Apparently, this was a full moon too. "It was a picture of the guy mooning the camera, exposing his genitals," said Najee's dad, Charles Johnson.

From this, CBS leaps in a manner most associated with March Hares to... sexual predators grooming children, by quoting a Parry Aftab, executive director of wiredsafety.org, "Computer game problems where predators are exposing them to children or grooming them for off-line meetings is a growing trend".

SPOnG is aghast. We have contacted Parry for the research basis of her claim. We are also going to contact the 'UK Government minister responsible for 'Going Outside to Parks and Other Outside Places'. Why? Because we heard that at least once in the history of parks, people have made inappropriate use of the available facilities.

Keep your eyes peeled for more mainstream media misunderstanding and fear-mongering... and report it to the SPOnG Forum.

^{Source: Cindy Hsu}