In what’s become a big story in Southern Ontario, the search continues for 15-year-old Brandon Crisp from Barrie, who went missing this past week after threatening to run away from home. The reason? He was told he could no longer play Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare, threatened to run away from home and followed through on that threat. As far as video games creeping into the mainstream media, this has been a widely followed local news story and has gotten the attention of quite a few companies as well. In fact, in response to the Xbox 360 being the cause for the child’s frustration and disappearance, Microsoft have offered a $50,000 dollar reward for his safe return. This is on top of a local Rogers cable station, who have also put up $10,000 for the child to be sent home.

The parents are stressing the fact that their son was “addicted” to Call of Duty through the online play, and was a part of clans in the game which was taking up all of his time. Dating this problem back to 2006, the boy bought the latest in the series (which I can only assume was Call of Duty 3) and begged his parents to get him Xbox Live in order to play with friends who lived far away. Since that point, the Crisp family has stressed that their son was skipping school, stealing and generally becoming isolated into the gaming world, and regardless of how many times they took the game away it made no impact. When they threatened to take away his Xbox 360 altogether, apparently it was the last straw and he left his home.

It’s a tragic story when any child goes missing, but the way this is being covered locally certainly is not painting online gaming in a good light. Stating that their son was probably lured from the game by an organized crime group, or internet gambling ring, or pedophile is making it out to seem that the online world is once again simply too dangerous for children. Obviously, this can be the case and it is why there are age restrictions associated with being in online gaming channels, but the original article written on the subject was putting a lot of emphasis on how the game caused the child to perform poorly in school, steal from his family and then leave.

Microsoft’s response seems a bit drastic, but it’s not a bad one. They are working with the police and the parents to uncover the individuals involved in the clan that their son was a part of, and also offering a large reward for the child to return. This along with 300+ volunteers who have been searching for the boy since he went missing, and with the police on the verge of calling the search off, desperation is certainly setting in for him to be found. If this is related to the boy being coerced by someone he was communicating with online, the benefit of a closed system that Microsoft has full control over will be realized, but it may be a step towards stricter monitoring if this situation grows any more dire.

It’s not fair to lay the blame anywhere in this case. Many responses on the original article by the Toronto Star were pointing the finger at the parents, stating that there are millions of people playing these games and it isn’t causing a dangerous addiction. Clearly the child has troubles, and the best you can do in this situation is hope for his safe return. I believe that Microsoft has done right by getting involved and demonstrating that the companies within the industry are not going to sit on the sidelines when they have the ability to make a difference in these kinds of situations. While it may be indicative to some as an admission of guilt, it seems more of an act of good faith to battle the perception that their products are causing the downfall of society as we know it.

This is something worth paying attention to and has picked up the ire of many media outlets to the online gaming world. You can also click on any of the above links for more information about the missing child if you know anything, and we all hope that he finds his way home unharmed and in enough time that his parents can have their minds at ease. The worst way to defend your hobbies or passions is to be disrespectful to the situation when there’s a lot more at stake than pride.