Tag: suicide

But the coroner, John Pollard, said he was disturbed by the schoolboy’s use of
violent games and issued a warning to other parents.

Recording an open verdict at the inquest in Stockport, Greater Manchester, Mr
Pollard said: “The age limitations on these various computer games are there
for a very valid reason. Why, quite frankly, anybody would want to be
playing them, I don’t know.

“It is very important that young children don’t play them or have access to
them.

“I make a plea with parents to keep a very close eye on their children in that
way.”

The Call of Duty series has sold 100 million copies around the world but has
been dogged by controversy. Anders Breivik, the Norwegian mass killer,
claimed he “trained to kill” his 77 victims by playing the Modern Warfare
game.

Keith Vaz, the Labour MP and chairman of the Home Affairs Select Committee,
has called on the British Board of Film Classification to place more
stringent controls on games with violent content.

Mrs Green said she thought the game was harmless fun and allowed Callum to
play it with his stepfather, David White.

She told the coroner: “Callum was very mature. Kids play worse games than
that. He was allowed to play Call of Duty but not other games. He was only
allowed a few hours on the PC.

“Does that make me a bad parent? Because I let him play those games?

“I banned him from other games where they slash their throats and stuff, I
stopped him playing that, but Call of Duty I didn’t.”

Callum hanged himself at the family home in Brinnington, near Stockport, in
March last year. The inquest heard that he was off school that day but was
grounded by his mother for staying out late with his girlfriend the night
before.

He went to his bedroom and was discovered at 4.50pm.

Mrs Green described her son as a happy child who had never given any
indication that he wanted to harm himself.