Boy, 10, buried in sandbox game, dies
By CASEY MCNERTHNEY AND CLAUDIA ROWE
P-I REPORTERS
A 10-year-old boy from the Everett area died Monday afternoon -- two days after playmates buried him in a sandbox and he stopped breathing.
The family of Codey Porter, a fifth-grader at Silver Firs Elementary, said an animated TV program called "Naruto" gave him the idea of being buried head-first Saturday morning.
Friends initially thought Codey was joking when he began thrashing around, covered from his head to his chest. When they realized he was in danger, they pulled him out and yelled for help.
Adults inside the home, friends of the Porter family, administered CPR until medics arrived. Codey was later flown to Children's Hospital and Regional Medical Center, where he died at 3:35 p.m. Monday.
"He passed peacefully, with his family at his side," the boy's family said in a statement. "We appreciate all the support and prayers that we have received."
Police interviewed the boy's playmates, who ranged in age from 8 to 10, as well as adults who were nearby. They found no evidence of criminal behavior.
"It appears to be a very sad accident," Snohomish County Sheriff's Office spokeswoman Rebecca Hover said. "We don't plan any more interviews."
"Naruto," which debuted on the Cartoon Network in 2005, centers on a young Ninja-in-training and his adventures on the way to becoming a village leader. Among his powers is the ability to quickly bury himself in the ground, using a tube to breathe in sand.
"It's magic and martial arts, and they save the world a couple of times," said Jake Metcalf, whose digital Joystick blog focuses on video games and animation. "It's insanely popular right now with boys about 10 to 15, similar to 'Batman' when we were kids."
Among media watchdogs and those who research the effects of television on children, the anime program has created barely a ripple.
"To my knowledge, there is no research specifically targeting anime," said Doug Gentile, director of research for the National Institute on Media and the Family. "But what we do know is that media in general do have a very large effect on people."
Nor is this a modern-day problem. People have been imitating television shows since the 1950s, Gentile said, recalling how boys jumped off garage rooftops, wearing towels like capes and pretending to be Superman.
The major difference today, he said, is that violence is often portrayed more realistically than, say, the TNT bombs that characterized "The Road Runner Show" or "Tom and Jerry" cartoons of a generation ago.
"A lot of the aggression in 'Tom and Jerry' is not easy to copy," Gentile said. "You won't have access to a ball of TNT to stuff in your brother's mouth, but you might have access to a sandbox. It's a horrible tragedy, but it's not surprising that at some point somebody is going to try almost anything they see."
Fred Zimmerman, a pediatrics professor at the University of Washington, has found a link between early television viewing among children and aggressive or anti-social behavior. But "Naruto" itself bore no more responsibility than any other program.
"Typically, parents don't complain about program content until it's too late," he said. "The fact is, kids and teenagers do imitate the foolish things they see on TV -- sometimes to disastrous effect. I would urge parents to view all TV content in this light. If you don't want to see it happening in your home, don't let your child see it happening on your TV.
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