Boy Commits Suicide Over Video Games?

Disclaimer: The following article contains disturbing content. Read at your own discretion. 

According to IndiaToday, an 8-year-old boy named Ankit Kumar committed suicide on Wednesday after his father rebuked him for playing video games too much. His father says he reprimanded his son because his excessive gameplay was getting away from his schoolwork and studies. 

He not only scolded Ankit for playing video games too much, but he also beat his other son for watching too much television. After rebuking both sons, he left to go to the market and his wife stepped out to go to a neighbor’s house. While they were away, Ankit used the television’s table stand at his house to help him tie a rope around the iron bars of a window. When his parents returned, they came home to Ankit hanging from the window bars.

Are games really to blame?

According to IndiaToday’s article, it seems as though they think Ankit committed suicide because of the scolding his father had done before he left to the market; however, I want to question this. There is no real proof that one event was the cause for the suicide.

Is it truly safe to say that his brother did not do the same because he was not excessively involved in game-playing like his brother Ankit was?  It seems like the article on IndiaToday might be making this claim.

Are video games truly worse than what we see on the television? Are they different or the same? And if they are different, is it users experience with them that makes them different from each other?

Overall, it is truly sad that a boy of eight would think of such a thing to do. Could it have truly been his excessive game playing giving him this idea? And what games could have he been playing? Leave your thoughts in the comments below.