Lavender Town Urban Legend

In 1996 in Japan, a new series of video games were released for kids. These two games were Pokémon Red and Pokémon Green. After the games release, there were reports of kids in Japan, having played the game, who had experienced illness or sometimes even suicide due to a "level" in the game containing high level frequency music. This has parked a "spooky" urban legend within the Pokémon community and even raised awareness outside of Japan. It is thought that the music from "Lavender Town" had caused young children to commit suicide due to its high frequency. If ot suicide, many children reported severe headaches. After its release in Japan, The US programmers of the American version of the game made sure to change and lower the frequency of the music of Lavender Town to ensure those incidents would not occur again.

This story is relevant to today's society because it makes people aware of the potential problems that video games might have on young developing minds. It is not true that video games cause these things, but they might have a link to why parents are so concerned about the safety of their children.

It is a significant urban legend to me because I was very obsessed with Pokémon a child. When I first heard this story, I was a 3rd grade kid who was just browsing on the internet, when I found an article about Pokémon. So I read the article and it honestly made me afraid to play the game for a while, scared that the music from Lavender Town would affect me even though I was older than the ages of the kids who were affected in Japan, and the US version of the game had already lowered the frequency. I became skeptical about the game for a while until I "grew up" and realized it didn't apply to me anymore.