The archive / Film, TV and books
1997 · Japan
Cartoon sends hundreds of children to hospital!
The Pokémon shock
Panic meter
The verdict
A Pokémon episode triggered real seizures in hundreds of children. Thousands more fell ill only after the news coverage.
Reality meter
What was said?
On 16 December 1997, Japanese television broadcast the episode Dennō Senshi Porygon. A sequence of rapidly flashing red and blue light left hundreds of children feeling unwell. According to the Japanese authorities, 685 people were taken to hospital by ambulance, and the series went off the air for four months.
The verdict: what happened next?
The seizures suffered by the first children were real and were caused by photosensitive epilepsy. However, researchers have shown that the roughly 12,000 children who reported milder symptoms in the days that followed were mostly influenced by media coverage – an example of mass psychogenic illness.
The incident led to guidelines on flashing images on television, which are still in use today.
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