Trapped Chilean miners banned from playing videogames

I’ve been following the story of the 33 miners trapped in a Chilean mine since news of their survival first broke. As well as the mens’ resilience, it’s hard not to be impressed by the rescue efforts that are underway to bring them back to the surface.

While rescuers (including folks from NASA) work above ground, the miners get TV, three hot meals a day, ice cream, and their clothes laundered – all of which is piped down narrow boreholes to the miners’ temporary subterranean home. But one thing they won’t be getting? Videogames.

While some reports have suggested the miners have each received a Sony PSP, authorities have denied this, saying they’ve ruled out both personal music players and portable videogames, on the grounds that games isolate people. According to Alberto Iturra Benavides, the rescue effort’s lead psychiatrist, “What they need is to be together.”

Am I the only one who thinks a spot of Mr. Driller could raise spirits down there?

[Via Washington Post]