World of Warcraft is the main suspect

Dec 12, 2008 16:01 GMT  ·  By

Gaming and education haven't always gone hand in hand. Although we've seen some studies that show games as having a big role in children’s developing social skills, there have been other members of the media or the society thinking that videogames are evil and that they corrupt the minds of the youth.

Members of the police, who blame games like Saints Row for teaching kids to murder people, or lawyers such as Jack Thompson, who went on a personal vendetta against violent game franchises like Grand Theft Auto, have been in the spotlight. But now, it seems that even a member of the North American FCC (Federal Communications Commission) is making a stand against videogames.

Deborah Taylor Tate, a commissioner for the FCC, has recently talked about the dangers of the entertainment industry on students and claims that the Internet, along with games such as World of Warcraft, which cause addiction, are the main reason young people are dropping out of college. She went on to say that even though the Internet had a considerable educational value, it still had a negative influence on most students.

“With the explosion of educational resources available online, one might think parents would be 100% pleased with the internet’s role in their children’s lives. But surveys show just the opposite: a late 2006 survey that showed 59% of parents think the internet has been a totally positive influence in their children’s lives-- down from 67% in 2004. You might find it alarming that one of the top reasons for college drop-outs in the U.S. is online gaming addiction - such as World of Warcraft - which is played by 11 million individuals worldwide.”

All in all, some pretty wild claims, as games are just a form of entertainment and the decision to drop out of college, made by students, is influenced by a lot of factors, not only gaming addiction. Let's just hope that less people will blame videogames for different things and that they won't have such a bad reputation.