Editing Virtual pet (section)

==Controversy==
The popularity of virtual pets in the United States, and the constant need for attention the pets required, led to them being banned from schools across the country,<ref>{{Cite web |title=Tamagotchi: Love It, Feed It, Mourn It |url=https://archive.nytimes.com/www.nytimes.com/library/cyber/week/052297gadget.html |access-date=2022-11-28 |website=archive.nytimes.com |archive-date=28 November 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20221128203500/https://archive.nytimes.com/www.nytimes.com/library/cyber/week/052297gadget.html |url-status=live }}</ref> a move that hastened the virtual pet's decline from popularity.{{Citation needed|date=December 2019}}

A ''[[Mad (magazine)|Mad]]'' cover on regular issue #362, October 1997 shows a gun being pointed at a virtual pet with [[Alfred E. Neuman]]'s face and the line "If you don't buy this magazine, we'll kill this virtual pet!" Illustrated by Mark Fredrickson. The cover parodies the January 1973 issue of ''[[National Lampoon (magazine)|National Lampoon]]'' which depicted a gun being held to a real dog's head and the line, "If you don't buy this magazine, we'll kill this dog."<ref name="madcoversite">[https://www.madcoversite.com/mad362.html MAD Cover Site] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230416041031/https://madcoversite.com/mad362.html |date=16 April 2023 }}, MAD #362 October 1997.</ref>

=== Relationship with digital pet ===
There is research concerning the relationship between digital pets and their owners, and their impact on the [[emotion]]s of people. For example, [[Furby]] affects the way people think about their identity, and many children think that Furby is alive in a "Furby kind of way" in [[Sherry Turkle]]'s research.<ref name="nytkatie">Katie Hafner, [https://archive.nytimes.com/www.nytimes.com/library/tech/00/05/circuits/articles/25pets.html What Do You Mean, `It's Just Like a Real Dog'?] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230205104853/https://archive.nytimes.com/www.nytimes.com/library/tech/00/05/circuits/articles/25pets.html |date=5 February 2023 }}, ''The New York Times'', May 25, 2000</ref>