Prince Harry visited the YMCA in South Ealing, west London, on Wednesday, where he attended an event on mental health initiative talking about the dangers of social media, declaring it ‘more addictive than drugs and alcohol’ during the session.
The focus of the event was too aware parents about the issue of mental health of their kids and how easy it is for kids to absorb negative influence easily and hard for parents to get rid of it. Many believe that the issue arises with the rise of ease of access to social media and how it remains non regulated against these negative influences.
Prince Harry said: “There’s too much negativity surrounding mental health and it must be so hard for young people to talk about it. ‘Social media is more addictive than drugs and alcohol, and it’s more dangerous because it’s normalised and there are no restrictions to it. ‘We are in quite a mind-altering time, but quite an exciting time, because everyone in this room has the opportunity to make a real difference.’ Later on, he suggests that games are bad for kids and have a bad influence. He said: ‘A game like Fortnite, for instance, may not be so good for children. Parents have got their hands up; they don’t know what to do about it”.
Later on, he said: “It’s like waiting for the damage to be done and kids turning up on your doorsteps and families being broken down. Fortnite shouldn’t be allowed. Where is the benefit in having that game in your household? ‘It’s created to addict – an addiction to keep you in front of a computer for as long as possible. It’s so irresponsible.’
What Prince Harry was suggesting is that games like Fortnite are to addictive for kids and make them irresponsible and hampers growth of their minds. The addictive nature of these games makes it hard for parents to control kids and at times kids will stay put on their gaming device for long hours to only play Fortnite.
Although this news wasn’t taken lightly by fans on twitter and many started calling Prince Harry a hypocrite and being patronizing. Some of the highlights are as follows :
There were many responses to this news but those were too brutal ( too much gore ) to share on this article with people actually going out of their way and asking Prince to mind his own business and leave the game alone. What’s your take on this, will banning a game actually solve any of these issues with access to other similar games with same theme?
