Baby starved to death while parents played
South Korean police have arrested a couple for starving their three-month-old daughter to death while they devoted hours to playing a computer game that involved raising a virtual character of a young girl.
The 41-year-old man and 25-year-old woman, who met through a chat website, reportedly left their infant unattended while they went to internet cafes. They only occasionally dropped by to feed her powdered milk.
"I am sorry for what I did and hope that my daughter does not suffer any more in heaven," the husband is quoted as saying on the asiaone website.
According to the Yonhap news agency, South Korean police said the couple had become obsessed with raising a virtual girl called Anima in the popular role-playing game Prius Online. The game, similar to Second Life, allows players to create another existence for themselves in a virtual world, including getting a job, interacting with other users and earning an extra avatar to nurture once they reach a certain level.
"The couple seemed to have lost their will to live a normal life because they didn't have jobs and gave birth to a premature baby," Chung Jin-Won, a police officer, told Yonhap. "They indulged themselves in the online game of raising a virtual character so as to escape from reality, which led to the death of their real baby."
Last September after a 12-hour gaming-session the couple came home in the morning to find their daughter dead. The baby's malnourished body aroused police suspicions of neglect that were was confirmed after an autopsy.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2010/mar/05/korean-girl-starved-online-game
If they had no jobs how could they afford to pay for 12 hours on the internet? ….young people have a harder time dealing with addictions, but the father was old enough to know better. A 41-year-old one should know what is his ‘responsibility’
poor parenting
lack of maturity... raising a child is not a childs play.
... as addictions exist to many different things, not just drugs, alcohol etc. What shocks me is to see to what extend the addictions go - to let a child (their OWN child) die of neglect/hunger.
...your surprise...What makes it so shocking?
Source:
- A study Conducted by FriedUnicorn - Vol I (September,1999)
"Resident Attention Seeker"
I thought my friend who used to miss exams for video games was a lunatic but this is taking it to a whole new level.
"Live with passion, Die with style"
i heard it in the TV news today..very sad..
... WITHOUT Internet access!!!! Makes me sick reading these kind of news :(
...of the Koreans.
Source:
- A study Conducted by FriedUnicorn - Vol I (September,1999)
"Resident Attention Seeker"
It's a very sad reality in a virtual world. I hope it won't happen again.
.....sick!!! :o(.........
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..... why worry and have wrinkles...when u can smile and have dimples :o) ......
sad and shocking :(:(
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I don't believe in taking right decisions;
I take decisions and make them right.
Thats really shocking to know... Hope it doesn't happen to any other child ever.
----------------------------------------------------------------Give me some SunShine......Give me some Rain
Give me another Chance...I wanna grow up once Again
Thats to sick, Cruel ppl :(
-: Perfectly ImPerfect :-
it just boiled my blood
Heartbreaking.. More interested in raising virtual character than their own child.. :(
~Welcome Sunshine~
It's partly a fact of the culture, they were jobless which in itself is very dishonorable and they gave birth to a girl. I'm sure they really considered that they have nothing to live for and games were the only things in their lives.
"We submit to the majority because we have to. But we are not compelled to call our attitude of subjection a posture of respect." Ambrose Bierce
When i read these child abuse stories i start getting really facist thoughts.
Really if you abuse one child then you should be sterilised so you can't reproduce.
Stupid parents....should hang thm to death.....Poor infant..feel pity for that child....
This is heartbreaking! How can anything be more important in life than your own children?? People like them don't deserve to be called mummy & daddy :-(
*****If you haven't got anything nice to say, don't say anything at all*****
I just hope they have internet in hell , so that they would still raise their VIRTUAL GIRL there ... I am really sorry for the poor little girl ...
god bless her soul
~A Smooth Sea never made a skilled Mariner~
~ Too old to be young , Too young to be old ~
yea true.. I dont blame the net...
If they cant look after the baby why are they producing? such people..If not internet they will be busy with something else..net is just an excuse for them to be away from their responsibilities...
Bloody Foolz ....:(
Poor infant...
Such an insane act...i would rather say its a BARBARIC act..shame on them...i hope there must be some law in that country to give enough punishment to the CRAZY COUPLES...
It costs next to nothing to use these internet cafes in Korea, it's 1 won per hour which the is equivalent of a dollar. While there you live off dirt cheap raman noodles and banana milk.
I'm really not surprised, While I was in Korea 2 young guys died because they couldn't be bothered to pull themselves away from these games and the owners of these "PC Bongs" never bothered to tell them to go home.
"We submit to the majority because we have to. But we are not compelled to call our attitude of subjection a posture of respect." Ambrose Bierce
I read this in GT yesterday. They dont seem to have any sense of "reality" in them. internet is their life.
"I can please only one person per day. Today is not your day. Tomorrow isn't looking good, either."