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General : Parents Care For Virtual Child at Expense of Real Child's Life
Posted Mar 05, 2010 by Michael Bitton
According to a story published by The Sun, Korean parents neglected their own real live child in order to care for a virtual one in a Second Life-esque game called Prius Online.
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Image Credit: Kotaku
The child was left alone at home, while the parents played at a internet cafe, left with only a single bottle of milk for nourishment each day. Unsurprisingly, the real child died of starvation as a result.
When the parents discovered their daughters body one day after returning from a gaming session, they called the cops, who were more than a bit suspicious, due to the fact the baby was found to have died of dehydration. However, they were unable to arrest the parents until recently, as they had been on the run since the baby's funeral in September.
When finally arrested by the police, the parents gave the following statement:
"Due to our sense of guilt, we have not been to a PC gaming room over these five months."
There are some people who should just never be parents.
I sincerely hope examples are made of them to give a reality check to others doing similiar things.
Just utterly repulsive what some people do. Though it wouldn't be a story at all if the parents were drinking or on drugs and weren't gamers.
The article said recently a man died from playing Starcraft non stop. That happened years ago, so either the article threw in recently for effect or they haven't learned from the people dropping dead playing in internet cafes non stop and so more keep doing it.
What is up with that country and their internet cafes, do they seriously not understand the stopping playing to take care of real life aspect? Truly amazing. Wonder if they played the majority of their games through the internet in their house if things would turn out differently or not.
Those Orientals sure love their mmo' s. If it's true then it is truly disturbing and sad, but I would like to say that the British press is notorious for printing absolute bollocks and distorting truths. I would like to point you to http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cambodian_Midget_Fighting_League which the British press lapped up without any validation.
All I'm saying is question what you read! (especially from British tabloid sources)
Wow, that is just insane. Plus they were on the run, Which to me, shows even more that they didn't give a damn about that baby, just themselves.
And here I am waiting for the US version of Prius Online to come out. I kind of feel bad about wanting to play it now...
Thats fucked up, lol.
Reminds me of the guy who left his kid to fry in the car while he went to the off track betting parlor.
Stupid people shouldn't breed.
That's just horrible.
That poor little kid.
This is like a similar story I read a few years ago. It is a shame people do this, but some people have no self control, I guess.
~Miles "Tails" Prower out! Catch me if you can!
Lol :)
Let's mirror this for fun:
A domestic dispute over a video game erupted into an all-out home melee late Thursday, with one man strangling his mother, throwing his son across a room and then being shot in the head by his grandfather, according to reports
Source: Heraldtribune
'What's wrong with those Americans? attacking their family over a game, students massacring other students at their schools'...
... a few people crossing the line doesn't mean a whole nation is like that. News is like it is, highlighting the exceptional cases like neglecting parents or some people going rabid.
I wish I couldve adopted the baby girl...... this is very sad news.......
(BBBBBWWWWWAAAAAAAAAHHHH fires soiled plungers at the dumbass parents!!!)
Virtual Reality - 1 : Real Life - 0
In all seriousness though, it is really sad to see how unfit some people can be. If you are unable to care for a child, then you should not have made the decision to have one. This is just taking it to a very big extreme though. Not only was it harmful to the child, it must have had some kind of negative effect on the parents as well. How many hours must you play to completely forget about personal responsibilities? Were they even caring for themselves for that matter? The thoughts are just too disturbing for words....
Gaming at cafes, when the average home as 50mg internet connection does make me wonder.
*shrug* They pay by the hour there, so things may be different. They may prefer cafe environments. I don't know. Beats me.
~Miles "Tails" Prower out! Catch me if you can!
Very sad and very fuk up but nothing new. They will kill you or beat you down very bad if you manage to get a very rare weapon that the rest at the cafe don't have, you would be torture for your game account and told not to say anything to anyone in game or in our reality. IF you PKed someone in game or won a pvp match to many times at the cafe you will be look at as a cheater in the public eye and get jumped.
Internet Cafe is a dangerous place to be, it is all public and around people that know who you are from the games. Its a damn shame people have to go to internet cafe and not stay home.
I really feel sad for kid, poor soul.
let's not forget the topic.
Baby Dead
Parents Stupid
Humans Lose
[Mod Edit]
Now that fanita's poor choice of words has been dissected to death (and since I do not know and have never met fanita, I cannot offer an accurate opinion on the matter either way and have no desire to make what may likely prove to be a false assumption regarding whether or not s/he is racist), it is sad to me that anyone would bring a child into this world only to completely ignore and neglect that child over a video game.
Real life comes first. The game is intended to be a diversion. It should be fun, not something that drives a person to commit violence because mom told them to walk away for ten minutes or something that causes people to forget to feed themselves or their families. When neglecting real life becomes a problem, maybe it is time to think about tossing the computer out the window and learning to deal with life.
You can have an Oriental Rug.
You can also have Oriental Pottery.
You can't have an Oriental person.
Try Asian or Pacific Islander.
From personal experience, It is extremely hard to play any game more than a few hours a week if you have children. The parents of the child who died should be subject to death by dehydration.
Dont you understand? We deal with stupid parents every day. What is one more set? Humans also lose something every day. Tragedy has struck towns, countries, individuals, etc pretty heavily in the last 5 years across the board. Even the rich folks have had to cut back. And a dead baby? We have over 6 billiion people on the planet. A single human life no longer has value outside of the immediate family, as communities themselves are more fluid as a consequence of global culture.
In short - We dont give a damn!
Dont you understand? We deal with stupid parents every day. What is one more set? Humans also lose something every day. Tragedy has struck towns, countries, individuals, etc pretty heavily in the last 5 years across the board. Even the rich folks have had to cut back. And a dead baby? We have over 6 billiion people on the planet. A single human life no longer has value outside of the immediate family, as communities themselves are more fluid as a consequence of global culture.
In short - We dont give a damn!
That's a shame we should give a damn.
if we take care of all the small bits then the large bits will take care of themselves.
What's there to understand, you are preaching to the choir. People haven't been "giving a damn" for longer than your life, why would you think anything would change now.
The baby is dead, can't reverse that. Parents will have to live with that for the rest of their lives. And they should.
wow...both those stories...now that's hardcore!
I had a feeling you were being sarcastic. My post was also being a bit of a smartass ;-)
Simply put, there are those that lack the capacity for restraint and the common sense required to balance a healthy lifestyle with gaming and there are certainly those that lack the above mentioned when it comes to parenting.
I actually admire those that have the sense to realize that they are either too irresponsible or immature to make a good parent and therefore, do not want children. There needs to be more people like that as having children and becoming a responsible parent is an enormous responsibility.
It is not just the orientals thougth. We had a guy here in florida about 8 or 9 years ago that kept putting off taking his daughter to the doctors becasue he was in a raiding guild in EQ and did not want to miss any raids. He was convicted and sent to jail was in all the papers here when it happen. Not to be confused with the guy who murdered his son becasue the sons crying was anoying him while he was playing EQ. Then there was the mother who while playing EQ left her girl in locked in the car. She subsequently died from the heat.
This same sort of nonsense happens in the States too.
http://www.joystiq.com/2007/07/16/mmo-couple-plead-guilty-to-child-neglect/
Reno, NV couple who had two infants that were malnourished and near death, while they merrily played DDO; leaving their children to get covered in cat urine and suffer from untreated infections while starving and suffering from dehydration.
Of course lets not blame gaming of any kind on these tragic stories. These "parents" were unfit before ever playing a game or having children, not because of said game. Gaming does not turn well-adjusted people into uncaring monsters. It just enables their behavior.
A sad as the needless death of this child is, at least I can take comfort that the two moronic parents won't be breeding any time soon. Boggles the mind how you can neglect a kid so long that it starves to death. Love the statement that they haven't been near a PC, riiiight not many LAN sessions in prison I bet.
This is what happens when two sociopaths have a kid. if it wasn't gaming it would have been something else. The child was doomed upon conception. The little ankle-biter is beyond us all now, thankfully.
hm... well buddy i have news for you. As a parent you are able to play a lot more then three hours a week.
For these parents, the only thing i can say is no self control. These people obviously had a worse addiction then drug addicts do. Just an obvious here.
Some people shouldn't have kids? Some people are great parents and nice individuals but have weaknesses like the rest of us. Some of us have that Uncle that is a nice person, but god, keep him away from addictions.
Good people F--- up and do bad things at times. When it comes time to face the music, they step back and look at themselves and say "My (diety/religion/explitative of choice), what have I done?" and then panic and run. Yes, what these people did was monstrous and they should pay and I hope the justice system in Korea takes proper care of it. The rest of the world saying "What horrible people, for shame" isn't quite right because you don't know about the rest of these people's lives. Saying "Some people shouldn't reproduce" should lump you into the same category, because that level of apathy is only marginally away from what led to the crime you're shaming.
What I believe is simply "Some people should know thier limits". If you can't follow the simple advice that more and more MMO's are putting into load screens and as disclaimers when you log in that you shouldn't ignore real life, then you should take steps to insure that other areas of your life are taken care of for you while you indulge in other things. Or if you're feeling life should be like in your favorite game.
Some of us kept it in our pants when we noticed marriage problems and the wife wanted a child. After divorce, she got her child with her new husband and I have the satisfaction of not only not having to pay child support, but in knowing I didn't screw up a child's life from custody battles, cross country trips and being passed around like an object until he/she was 18.
Step back. Take stock and realize what you are thinking and what you should be thinking and get help if needed. Even if it's "hey Mom, can I live in your basement and play games?"
This message brought to you by someone who genuinely gives a f---. Because I care :3
This isnt the first time something came about like this. Its sad. I play after my daughter goes to bed at night or during the day on weekends. Its not hard to just hit the log off button.
But for certain types of people it can be hard to log off. Usually because their RL is inferior to their gaming life. They can enter a new world that they can control and not have to worry about distractions like work or that noisy thing in the back room that keeps shitting itself and getting on my nerves!
Again it's sad but true: Certain people should not be allowed to reproduce.
Awful. Dehydration has to be an awful way for a baby to die.
I cannot even imagine how a person could do this to their own child.
Original South Korean Story in English here: english.yonhapnews.co.kr/national/2010/03/05/42/0302000000AEN20100305003400315F.HTML
Story is a little bit more complicated than is normally reported, and once again Computer Gaming is scapegoated for deeper issues, and the child was not starved as not given any food, but not given the proper amount and the circumstances while not justifying it, explains why it wasn't as malicious as these cases that are usually reported of starving children.
In any case... it was a preventable tragedy and I only hope that after it happening it prevents it from happening to other children.
This made the papers because a video game was involved and that makes the story sensational. Unfortunately, children die every day in the world due to preventable neglect. I'm not talking about children in third world countries where there is no food or water, but industrialized nations including the US.
Its extremely sad.
I am not going to blame the game, I have to blame the parrents. Sounds like they were an addict, just their drug of choice was online gaming, actually probably more than that.
Some folks should never ever have kids, it would be nice ot know more about the story. I.E. were these teen age parrents, first child, where they lived so forth and so on.
It is sad for the child, I guess the all mighty took a look at the situation and the only fix to the problem was to take back the gift that was given to these two parrents.
And that statement whe have not played online games in 5 months becasue we were ashamed of what happened, sounds more like they were sad they got caught with their hand in the cooky jar.
I guess I have long been the jaded victim of hopelessness, for only a single quote by Kurt Tucholsky (wrongfully credited to Joseph Stalin) pops to my head. Goes by the lines of:
"One death is a tragedy. A million deaths is just a statistic."
You read this article, and say "Sad" You'll think about the situation, you can picture it. Now, turn your attention and thoughts to... lets say.. Chile, or maybe Haiti, how about any of the dozen smaller ethnic wars and "minor" cases of genocide, raging across the world.
Would you feel the same?
Admittedly, this bit of news was brought to us because of one, singe, fact: a computer game was involved. Quite honestly, I remember reading about this in the local newspaper when the actual death happened. Article was hardly longer than a single paragraph, if it weren't for the fact stated above, this bit of news, in all probability, wouldn't of been posted here, leaving the grand majority of the people who frequent this site, oblivious to this happening.
Objectivity.
Some people should not reproduce. Some of them prove it by failing to do so successfully.
Anyone who kills his own child or neglects it unto death hasn't, in that case, successfully reproduced. The outcome is deserved, not by the victim directly, but by the perpetrators.
It would be kinder to keep any more children from being born to such persons, but the tragedy is not in the unsuccessful reproduction-- it's only in the pain and suffering along the way. All told, I am glad the couple who are the subject of the article have no living offspring. For the way it makes me feel to realise that fact and for that alone, I could easily bring myself to kill them, but it is true.
"Very rarely will he squarely push the logic of a fact
To its ultimate conclusion in unmitigated act"
-- R. K.
South Korea is a country that has at least two cable channels devoted to airing competitive Starcraft games with commentary, and I don't know if anyone remembers the story from about five years ago or so but there was a spat of so-called "real-life PK" incidents. Ie: Kim hacked Han's Lineage account, so Han goes to Kim's Internet Cafe and kills Kim. Not in the game. Just straight out murders the dude. With an axe.
I live here and the way some people take responsibility for their kids is reprehensible; kind of the opposite end of the spectrum from American parents (who are often equally guilty, just in a different flavor). To give you an idea, I went to a barbeque restaurant last night, where you sit on the floor and cook your pork over a really hot plate at the center of the table -- it was a crowded night and a group of parents were letting their kids sprint at full speed around the restaurant causing problems for waitresses and other patrons at the same time. It was a testament to the old adage that "God looks out for children, fools, and drunks" that no kid tripped and BBQ'd himself.
There is a culture of unbridled overcompetitiveness in this country, not only in the day to day life but also even within forms of relaxation; people try to have their cake and eat it too, and as a result sacrifices get made. Sadly enough, sometimes the sacrifices are kids.
On the positive side, there is no Jack Thompson-esque figure here decrying games as the devil. Most people still blame their social ills on foreigners, and I wouldn't be surprised that as a result of this most recent tragedy that to renew my visa in addition to a random HIV test ('cause "foreigners come to South Korea for the express purpose of infecting people with AIDS") I'll have to go through a baptism by Zerg.
Blaming this on anything or anyone other than the parents themselves is rediculous.
That is really jawdropping extreme, but generally in MY opinion 2/3rd of humanity should not have kids! They are way more ppl SO not ready to be parents than good ones.
Im a firm believer that would-be parents should have to pass extensive I.Q. and logic tests before being allowed to reproduce. Havent you seen idiocracy?
I am not sure IQ alone does it, its more social competence and compassion.
Don't we LIVE in an idiocracy? I mean, how else did those dudes gotten into the damn Parliaments?
It's quite scary, what this article describes is actually a very real issue.
I've met a person in-game that did just this.. during my time on Atlantica I became good friends with a soon-to-be father from texas (sorry if you read this, but hey it's me MuziX), the same day his daughter was born he was right back to getting high and playing the game for days on end.
The only thing I can figure is that at such a young age he was going through some sort of denial, and was using this mmo as a way to completly escape the reality of his situation, and by completly I do mean altogether. He was far more concerned with PvPing and pointlessly arguing with children on the game.
I'll admit I was playing unhealthy ammounts too, sometimes days on end as well, that's the only reason I could see what was going on. But at the time I had no job and certainly no family to worry about, had absolutely nothing but free time, yet still this guy managed to be putting in more hours actually playing the game than me.
It was rather shocking to witness, and it made me stop playing mmo's altogether for some time.. it really opened my eyes on how addictive these games can be, it seems to some people that these alternate worlds are considered to be a far more important realitity than realitity itself.
Couping mechanism or not, the negelect remains the same.
/rage
they should be forced at gunpoint to take care of the childs' corpse for three months. feed it no less than five times a day, change it ten times a day and be forced to sleep in the same bed with it in the middle. After that, they need to get these motherfucker's accounts, "delete" their online baby, then their accounts, and force them to drink rotten milk once a day for the rest of their natural lives for food in a cell the size of a coffin after recovering from castration by blunt trauma by baseball bats.
RECORD all these events, then make it mandatory viewing for EVERY person who use an internet cafe and sign a waiver allowing similar punishment should they be found guilty of similar neglect.
Either that or inject fly eggs into their fatty tissue and reproductive organs and put them in straight jackets for the rest of their natural life till the maggots eat them from the inside out.
kekekekekekekek
http://www.sptimes.com/News/010301/Hillsborough/Father_guilty_in_deat.shtml
when this one happen i remeber my EQ server everyone wanted this guys head , just sick
This would probably happen in America if it wasn't for the fact that most people have computers with internet at home. As it stands there are probably a lot of children of mmo players that get neglected due to mmo addiction.
I personally know a married couple on government assistance with five kids. They play mmos all day. One month they couldn't make the monthly sub fee so our guild leader paid their monthly fee. They were very well connected and helpful in the clan because they were always on. But I wonder who would be taking care of their children. Even if the kids had food and clothing, there are other things kids need...like love and attention, which is hard to get when your parents are constantly online playing a video game. Sometimes the mom would sit the baby on her lap because the baby liked to watch the monitor. I guess that was her 'quality' time.
Sometimes I do tend to wonder what direction the general bulk of humanity is going and why part of this bulk are our leaders in government positions. This isn't just limited to America where there are some SERIOUSLY idiotic people or Korea where a good majority can't leave a game world long enough to focus on any problems in the Real world.
Like someone asked earlier Aren't we ALREADY in an Idiocracy?
I swear letting a baby die as you care for a virtual one...If that even REMOTELY occured in the states the people responsible would be dead too no matter what occured. Someone would definitely end them for playing fast and loose with a child's life...
And yeah feeding a kid is great but they do tend to require more than just a pet, Matter of fact all of us on some level REQUIRE human feedback it's just how we're wired.
This is the kind of story paranoid governments either love or concoct as propoganda.
It's being blown out of all pproptions because politicians can do something about it, even though they have no right to, but it's a hell of a lot easier to crawl all over videogames are killing kids than entire countries are failing in their responsibilities to protect the vulnerable.
Look at the genocides that have taken place & the responses to them, nothing is proportional, governements pick & choose their battles to maximise effect, fighting wars they think they CAN win is a lot more sensible than trying to fight injustices they cannot win.
That's the real tragedy.
It was a sad story.
I don't understand why the parents had to go to an internet cafe to play games. Didn't they have other similiar games in Korea they could play at home? If not, those Korean internet cafe might better come up with babysitting services. :p
ship'em to north korea w/full disclosure of what they did, kji will have some good sadistic ideas for them
This reminds me of two locals who had their little girl taken away by DSS a couple years back. Neither parent showed up to the hearing because they were too busy raiding. Thankfully the courts didn't give her back to those two nimrods. I like games, so does my wife, but we find our children and each other infinitely more interesting. And recently I have seen a new phenomena, twenty something gaming couples whoring for fame in the industry and amoungst fellow gamers… and they always mention how they are parents, but..it seems they are constantly posting on their blogs about the hours they spend in game, or at conventions…so I wonder how much time is spent parenting. I dunno....maybe folks should decide lifestyle choices before they become parents.