Couple nurture their virtual child and let real baby starve Options

[Gertie Keddle]

Couple nurture their virtual child... and let their real baby daughter starve to death

By Mail Foreign Service
Daily Mail
Excerpt:

A computer-addicted couple let their real life baby starve to death while they raised a virtual daughter online, police said today.

The couple spent 12 hours a night at internet cafes while their three-month-old daughter was left home alone at their apartment in Suwon, South Korea. They were arrested today.

<snip>

'They called in last September to report that they found their daughter dead after coming back home in the morning,' Detective Chung Jin-Won of the Suwon Seobu Police Station said.

'They had spent 12 hours, all night at a PC bang (a Korean internet café)'.

Officers became suspicious of how severely dehydrated the child was and have charged the couple with child abuse and neglect.

An autopsy confirmed she died of malnourishment.

Police said the Kims had become so obsessed with the daughter they were raising online that they appeared to have not taken their responsibility to their real daughter seriously.

The couple confessed they had fed the child rotten powdered milk and often spanked her.

<snip>

Online games are massively popular in South Korea, with professional gamers becoming celebrities through live televised tournaments.

But critics say the popularity, which also nets huge profits for tech companies, comes at a steep price, with ever more bizarre incidents hitting the headlines.

A 28-year-old man dropped dead recently after playing his favourite game Starcraft for 50 hours non-stop without eating and drinking.

In another incident, a gamer, enraged that an opponent had killed the character he had put so much effort into creating, quickly found out his adversary's location through a chat built into the game, took a taxi across town and stabbed him.

article

[ThePatriot]

They should lock this couple in a room and let them die of thirst and starvation. (IMG:http://www.rightnation.us/forums/style_emoticons/default/redhot.gif)

[SARGE]

They should lock this couple in a room and let them die of thirst and starvation. (IMG:http://www.rightnation.us/forums/style_emoticons/default/redhot.gif)

Works for me!

[tidelady]

Dam#, what about "it's just a game" do these people not get?

This post has been edited by tidelady: Mar 6 2010, 02:19 PM

[Riothouse]

She was starving to death and they "often spanked her!" Which means when she did have the strength to cry out for food she was hit for it. Man I should not have read this. It makes me literally want to vomit.

[pict]

The couple confessed they had fed the child rotten powdered milk and often spanked her.

Words fail me in this case, they really do.

[dan]

What the f@##?! I'm with pict...

[Bookdoc]

Actually, I'm with ThePatriot. Only a good salty meal first. (IMG:http://www.rightnation.us/forums/style_emoticons/default/2thumbs.gif)

[ASE]

They should lock this couple in a room and let them die of thirst and starvation. (IMG:http://www.rightnation.us/forums/style_emoticons/default/redhot.gif)

That's easy! Just send 'em to a UK hospital.

[GRITS]

She was starving to death and they "often spanked her!" Which means when she did have the strength to cry out for food she was hit for it. Man I should not have read this. It makes me literally want to vomit.

And she was only three months old! You know how badly newborns can misbehave and warrant discipline such as spanking.
This is absolutely DISGUSTING! (IMG:http://www.rightnation.us/forums/style_emoticons/default/redhot.gif)

[Buckwheat Jones]

(IMG:http://www.rightnation.us/forums/style_emoticons/default/huh.gif)

[arekeon27]

LOL, wow

[oki]

After reading this my only 'joy' is knowing that in South Korea they won't get cable TV, rec rooms and so on.
They will actually pay for there crime.

Oki

[VCL]

This is very similar to a book i read (fiction) not too long ago. It was called "The Corporate Man", I think. I like futuristic books if they are well written and not full of aliens etc. Anyway this man had himself frozen because he had cancer and woke up waaayyyyy into the future. Virtual reality had been outlawed because people became so obsessed with their alternate realities that they let their kids starve, etc. It really isn't so far fetched. Think how much better & better these virtual environments will become. And people with no social skills are already living like this.
We recently had to take away our 16 yr old's PS3 because it was becoming his life. All of his friends play each other over the internet at night. And these boys aren't nerdy, they are fairly normal.
Its crazy.

[Lori]

She was starving to death and they "often spanked her!" Which means when she did have the strength to cry out for food she was hit for it. Man I should not have read this. It makes me literally want to vomit.

And she was only three months old! You know how badly newborns can misbehave and warrant discipline such as spanking.
This is absolutely DISGUSTING! (IMG:http://www.rightnation.us/forums/style_emoticons/default/redhot.gif)

I thought the same thing - the only thing the baby could have been doing is crying for food, which irritated them so they spanked her. Really -- spanking a 3 MONTH OLD?????

[Mr. Naron]

This is very similar to a book i read (fiction) not too long ago. It was called "The Corporate Man", I think. I like futuristic books if they are well written and not full of aliens etc. Anyway this man had himself frozen because he had cancer and woke up waaayyyyy into the future. Virtual reality had been outlawed because people became so obsessed with their alternate realities that they let their kids starve, etc. It really isn't so far fetched. Think how much better & better these virtual environments will become. And people with no social skills are already living like this.
We recently had to take away our 16 yr old's PS3 because it was becoming his life. All of his friends play each other over the internet at night. And these boys aren't nerdy, they are fairly normal.
Its crazy.

I was thinking about an Orson Scott Card short story set in his Worthing universe where gamers are celebrities and live completely messed up lives because of it.

I take away my boy's XBox privileges every time he looks at one of his sisters the wrong way because I can see it getting out of hand. As good a kid as he is, I think gaming could become a real problem for him.

[VCL]

I was thinking about an Orson Scott Card short story set in his Worthing universe where gamers are celebrities and live completely messed up lives because of it.

I take away my boy's XBox privileges every time he looks at one of his sisters the wrong way because I can see it getting out of hand. As good a kid as he is, I think gaming could become a real problem for him.

We have noticed that since we took it away that he actually comes out of his bedroom and interacts with us. Since he is 16, I don't expect him to want to hang out but just to exchange a little conversation for a change. I don't want to ever give it back to him but I can't say I won't eventually cave.

This post has been edited by VCL: Mar 9 2010, 08:47 PM

[Mr. Naron]

We have noticed that since we took it away that he actually comes out of his bedroom and interacts with us. Since he is 16, I don't expect him to want to hang out but just to exchange a little conversation for a change. I don't want to ever give it back to him but I can't say I won't eventually cave.

He'll thank you for it later. Maybe waaaay later, but eventually he'll see why you put limits on him.