Prince Harry’s firstborn is due later this month, but he’s already taking the stern dad approach to a popular video game: Prince Harry says “Fortnite” should not exist.
The Duke of Sussex recently visited a West London YMCA, where he talked with mental health professionals about the detrimental effects of social media and video games. He took aim, especially, at video games like Epic Games’ “Fortnite,” some first-person shooter nonsense that is extremely popular with preteens and teens.
Prince Harry said that the game is more addictive in quality than either drugs or alcohol. “It’s created to addict. An addiction to keep you in front of a computer for as long as possible. Where is the benefit of having it in your household?” Harry said, according to the Express. “It’s so irresponsible… The game shouldn’t be allowed.”
He’s not the only one, for the record, who has the violent game in their sights. Epic of “Fortnite” was recently part of a lawsuit for its “predatory loot boxes,” according to Variety. An unnamed minor and his dad, Steve Altes, accused Epic of preying on minors by “misrepresenting the chances of getting valuable items.”
The real story there being, in our humble opinion: If there was any doubt that the game is addictive, hey, a father and his kid actually took the time to file a lawsuit against the makers of the game, because they were enraged that they weren’t getting better loot. Case closed.
At his YMCA visit, Prince Harry urged parents to take matters back into their own hands. “Parents have got their hands up — they don’t know what to do about [the constant gaming]. It’s like waiting for the damage to be done,” the Duke said. Go, Papa Harry!
And in case you were wondering, gaming addiction is a real thing. “Gaming disorder” is expected to be added to the International Classification of Diseases at the World Health Assembly next month.
Prince Harry encouraged parents to make a return to the outside world, modeling old-school interactions for their kids — instead of using social media connections as primary friendships. “Without that human connection, when you do have a problem you have nowhere to go,” he continued. “The only place you might go is online and you will probably end up getting bullied.”
Online bullying is no joke to Prince Harry, who’s been furious and devastated by the racist trolling of his pregnant wife, Duchess Meghan of Sussex (nee Markle), on social media. Trolls have been brazen enough to trash the duchess on the Kensington Palace social media accounts — and you know when Baby Sussex comes, the Sussexes are going to be dead careful with their private life, including that brand-new Instagram account.
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