WEBVTT

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As a mother of a ten year old boy,

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I know firsthand
just how dangerous video games can be.

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Not only are they addictive and isolating,

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they can teach our children to mimic toxic

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and sometimes deadly behaviors.

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And my Michael was no exception.

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Video games radicalized my son

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to run around and pick up coins

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and now

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his life is ruined.

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It started out small.

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At first, Michael would pick up
a nickel here or there and yell Who?

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Then things started to get more extreme.

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He'd become so desensitized that he would
sprint down the street pointing

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at the coins, jumping on the coins
and spinning around in a circle.

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When he held the coins,

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that's when I knew something was very,
very wrong.

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I tried everything to stop it, taking away

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its coin purse, hitting him over the head
to scatter his coins.

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I even tried crushing him with the
barrel to steal his coins.

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But every time

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he just went out and did it again.

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Then one afternoon,

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I got the call

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that I'd been dreading my entire life.

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It was the police.

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They said they had my son,

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that he had entered a grocery store
and had done that.

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Thinkable.

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Michael had gotten his head stuck

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in a Coinstar machine.

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But what had I done?

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What kind of boy had I raised?

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When they took him to the station,

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all he could say was came over and.

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Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa.

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I will always love my son,

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but I barely recognize him anymore.

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And if I could,

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I would ban video games forever

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to protect kids like Michael

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from ever
having to see a coin in the first place.