Fortnite is the game which doesn’t seem to be going away, no matter how much some people wish it would.
The game is one of the most popular titles in recent memory and the Battle Royale title has consumed the lives of millions of people.
While the game is providing countless hours of fun to many around the world, it’s also leaving those people’s loved ones yearning for a world without the addictive game.
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Now, women are trying to make it happen by starting petitions which are calling on Fortnite to be banned for good.
There are dozens of such petitions on the internet, with descriptions detailing women who are trying to get their partners back after losing them to the online game.
Of course, some of these petitions are tongue-in-cheek, but hundreds of people are signing their names to them.
One such petition, titled ‚Get rid of fortnite‚, says:
Girls have to deal with their boyfriends playing it all day and ignoring them.
Together we can stop this dumb game from existing. It’s taking over our boyfriends lives and brainwashing them [sic].
While these petitions are not entirely serious, some petitions on change.org are genuinely trying to get the game banned from their country because of the affect it’s having on young kids.
Think of all the mass violence that has occurred in recent years, there has been a 900% increase in violence conducted by minors from 2000- 2015 compared violence conducted by minors from 1984-1999.
This sharp increase can be attributed to the violence that our children absorb in video games.
Now a video game that is more mainstream than ever before is pulling in over 30 million players has the potential to influence millions of more children to conduct violence.
This is a sentiment which is, at least in part, shared by the President of the United States, Donald Trump, who believes the rise in violent video games is a root cause of gun violence in America.
He said last month the nation needs to address what young people are seeing, saying:
I’m hearing more and more people saying the level of violence on video games is really shaping young people’s thoughts.
And then you go the further step, and that’s the movies. You see these movies – they’re so violent, and yet a kid is able to see the movie if sex isn’t involved.
While many studies have revealed a link between violent video games and violent children, many experts call the link ‚insignificant‘.
One expert, Whitney DeCamp, says it’s dangerous to look at the two things in a vacuum, as kids who like to play brutal video games may have a natural predisposition for aggression.
He says the real question is whether playing violent video games causes violence, and found when controlling for other factors, playing violent video games stood as no real predictor for violent behaviour, according to CNN.
But that, of course, doesn’t mean the girlfriends of players aren’t losing themselves to Fortnite, as the slew of petitions show.
