Two Canadian teens who broke into a home, did $25,000 in damages and then microwaved a cat to death have avoided jail time, but are banned from playing violent videogames. According to the Edmonton Journal they’re also on strict probation for the next year complete with 9:00 pm curfews and limited cellphone access. The boys must attend therapy sessions and serve 100 hours of community service as well as pay for the $500 deductible on the homeowners’ insurance. They also can’t own an animal for two years leaving one of their families in the position of having to give up a dog they bought for the boy’s younger siblings just ten weeks ago.
For me, this raises a few questions other than why on Earth parent’s would bring a new pet into a home when their son had already gruesomely killed another animal just six months before. These kids break into a former friend’s house twice during Christmas break, steal a guitar and trash the house to the tune of 25K in damages and nuke Princess the family cat. What do videogames have to do with their behavior or is the ban considered a harsher punishment than jail time? The answer is nothing really, it just seemed like a good idea at the time.
According to court ordered psychological assessments, video games were not found to have directly encouraged the boys’ actions. But barring their access to such games was nonetheless a recommendation put forward in the assessments.
I’m with the judge on this one. It’s been nine months since the incident and these two 16 year olds still can’t say why they cooked the cat. Most people are stable enough to be able to tell the difference between reality and fantasy. The vast majority of gamers can play violent videogames without any problems. These two boys have proved that they have an incredibly destructive streak and shouldn’t be exposed to anything that might exacerbate it.
However I have to ask why only violent videogames? These two should be banned from violent television, books and films as well. They shouldn’t be exposed to anything more violent than the Little Mermaid. Maybe their parents should look into the new Petz Rescue Series.
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