U.K. Columnist Says “Xbox is Crack For Kids”

In an article for the Times Online, U.K. columnist Janice Turner calls videogames “crack cocaine for the brain” and says game developers are evil.

Turner, who writes mainly on family and women’s issues, described her concerns over her kids’ television habits, shared with many of her fellow parents, but saved her real vitriol for videogames. She characterized her kids as “playground outcasts” as a result of her refusal to buy them videogame consoles.

She also compared television to videogames very favorably, suggesting the medium has many positive qualities that videogames lack. “How can you object to your children being schooled in subversion, post-modernism, American politics, film pastiche and a hatred of clowns?” she wrote of The Simpsons, which according to research agency ChildWise is the most popular children’s show in the country.

“Unlike the TV-hating parents, I refuse to buy them portable gaming consoles, Xboxes, GameCubes, PS2s,” she wrote. “These are Satan’s Sudoku, crack cocaine of the brain. Even the crappiest cartoon or lamest soap teaches a child about character, plot, drama, humor, life. Playing videogames, children are mentally imprisoned, wired into their evil creators’ brains.”

The full text of the article Xbox is Crack For Kids is available here.