Mothers Against Videogame Addiction and Violence
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Mothers Against Videogame Addiction and Violence (MAVAV) is a hoax organization created by sophomore Parsons The New School for Design student David Yoo as a class assignment. The web site claims that it is "dedicated to educating parents in today's fastest increasing threat and danger to our child's health and way of life" against videogames, which it claims are harmful to children. The MAVAV site suggests that videogames are addictive, and as a result are harmful to the development of children.
MAVAV alleges that video games have been proven to prevent the proper development of social skills and interaction. It also claims that as a result of this people who play video games are prone to depression and sadness throughout their lives. Additionally, the organization states that those who play video games suffer from low self-esteem when compared to their more athletic (and therefore socially acceptable) peers.
The MAVAV hoax is a prime example of how easily falsified information can be propagated on the Internet, as well as how easily consumers will take in that which they read, without first questioning it. MAVAV has garnered some note from the video game industry, including mentions at Penny Arcade and other gaming-related pages.
Controversially, David Yoo is still accepting Google Adsense payments from this hoax.
