Teenager Kills Mother, Commits Suicide Over Gaming Argument

Andy Chalk

One Flag, One Fleet, One Cat
Nov 12, 2002
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Teenager Kills Mother, Commits Suicide Over Gaming Argument


A 15-year-old Korean boy killed his mother and then committed suicide after the two argued about his "excessive" videogaming habits.

Police in the South Korean city of Busan said the teenager strangled his 43-year-old mother following a fight over his "excessive playing of violent Internet games." He then hanged himself from a gas pipe, leaving a suicide note with his grandmother, who lived next door.

"I was scolded for game playing and did what I shouldn't have done to my mother," it read. "I am sorry."

The woman's body was discovered by her 12-year-old daughter the next morning. "I thought they were fighting like they normally do and just went to sleep," the girl told police. "When I woke up in the morning, my mother was lying dead on the bed." Her brother had been playing violent videogames "for the past two to three years," she said.

The police apparently suspect that the boy committed suicide because he felt guilty about murdering his own mother, but are still investigating the exact cause of the incident. According to CBS [http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2010/11/16/world/main7059794.shtml], South Korea estimates that roughly two million of its citizens are "internet addicts."

Source: GamePolitics [http://www.koreaherald.com/national/Detail.jsp?newsMLId=20101116001116]


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Matt_LRR

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Nov 30, 2009
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Andy Chalk said:
"I was scolded for game playing and did what I shouldn't have done to my mother," it read. "I am sorry."

The police apparently suspect that the boy committed suicide because he felt guilty about murdering his own mother
Ace detectives working this case.

-m
 

SomeLameStuff

What type of steak are you?
Apr 26, 2009
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Cue Fox News in three... two... one...

Seriously, why the heck does this crap keep happening?
 

TheBoulder

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Nov 11, 2009
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Great, another story to prove that gamers are insane. But in all seriousness, this really is a sad story, especially the letter.
 

RatRace123

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Dec 1, 2009
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Alright, this incident happened because of some disturbed kid, not because of games.
You'd have to be an idiot to view it any other way.
 

RollForInitiative

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Mar 10, 2009
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*sigh*

Again? Really? It doesn't exactly help my industry's efforts to clear its name when people keep pulling stupid stunts like this. As usual, this will be blamed on us without any note given to the simple fact that people with serious mental issues are going to be prone to irrational or violent acts regardless of whether they were just playing Gears of War or My Little Goddamn Pony.

As children, most of us learned how to properly connect the dots. Why have we, as adults, forgotten how to do so?
 

Yureina

Who are you?
May 6, 2010
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That makes me sad. Its always horrible to hear about stuff like this happening. :'(
 

BrunDeign

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Feb 14, 2008
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SomeLameStuff said:
Cue Fox News in three... two... one...

Seriously, why the heck does this crap keep happening?
Hey this is South Korea's problem, not the United States'.

The United States has obesity, South Korea has internet addiction. They are quite different. Of course it wouldn't be hard to spin this into a way in which to target the game industry in the U.S.

And Matt you better be careful when talking about those ace detectives. They already used their ace detective skills to determine that you work with Loading Ready Run. They even know about your involvement in the clandestine news program ENN. You should go into hiding. Pick somewhere scenic.
 

Giest4life

The Saucepan Man
Feb 13, 2010
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SomeLameStuff said:
Cue Fox News in three... two... one...

Seriously, why the heck does this crap keep happening?
It happens with every other thing, too: people murder because their dog got ran over; they murder because they were drunk; they murder because they got cheated at poker; people murder. Shit happens with everything. Except with videogames it gets blown out of proportion because people need a scapegoat. Expecting people to do otherwise would make them inhuman--it's what we do.
 
Feb 13, 2008
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Matt_LRR said:
Andy Chalk said:
"I was scolded for game playing and did what I shouldn't have done to my mother," it read. "I am sorry."

The police apparently suspect that the boy committed suicide because he felt guilty about murdering his own mother
Ace detectives working this case.

-m
Dammit, not a lot more that I can say. Apart from the real story here is

"Parental Argument leads to Murder. Murderer commits Suicide." - Games weren't really any part of this.
 

unicron44

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Oct 12, 2010
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RatRace123 said:
Alright, this incident happened because of some disturbed kid, not because of games.
You'd have to be an idiot to view it any other way.
THIS! Just like every other murder ever. Just because someone plays videos games and is disturbed doesn't mean video games makes them disturbed. That would be an ad hominen.
 

Misho-

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May 20, 2010
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RatRace123 said:
Alright, this incident happened because of some disturbed kid, not because of games.
You'd have to be an idiot to view it any other way.
That is so true, but unfortunately the media won't see it like that. It's like over here (in Costa Rica) a kid (16 or so) killed his dad by putting a kitchen knife through his neck while they were playing FIFA because his dad was better that he was at the stupid game... I mean that's something I would expect from a slasher movie like Friday the 13th...

I mean a whole kitchen knife through the neck of your father... :S

It's like the Russian Kid who killed his dad while he was sleeping with a Sledgehammer because he had grounded him and put the games away... The scary thing is that the kid killed his dad and then just went to play his videogame like nothing had happened at all.
 

jamradar

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Sep 13, 2010
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Damn it more bad press for gaming, just what we needed.

Despite the fact that video games pretty much had nothing todo with the murder and the suicide.
 

Unesh52

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May 27, 2010
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RatRace123 said:
Alright, this incident happened because of some disturbed kid, not because of games.
You'd have to be an idiot to view it any other way.
I don't think anyone's going to argue that here friend.
 

MoeTheMonk

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Apr 26, 2010
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SomeLameStuff said:
Cue Fox News in three... two... one...

Seriously, why the heck does this crap keep happening?
Wow, Fox News brought up by the second post, a new record I think. Usually it's not mentioned until at least the 4th comment...

But why does it always seem like this extreme gaming-related behavior happens in Asian countries. I mean, I know it happens elsewhere too, but it always seems like whenever there's a story about someone dying from dehydration, killing their children through neglect because of gaming, or gaming-related murders like this one, they all seem to be in Asia?
 
Apr 28, 2008
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Matt_LRR said:
Andy Chalk said:
"I was scolded for game playing and did what I shouldn't have done to my mother," it read. "I am sorry."

The police apparently suspect that the boy committed suicide because he felt guilty about murdering his own mother
Ace detectives working this case.

-m
I don't know, me may need to call in Professor Layton.

OT: Well, this sounds like a problem with the kid rather then the games. If he was willing to kill his mother over games, he has a problem.

Unless there's some other domestic issue that I'm not aware of, but that would also have very little, if anything, to do with games.
 

Just_A_Glitch

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Dec 10, 2009
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Awesome. It took three posts before an Escapist member got onto the "don't blame games" argument. That's later than usual. I'm proud.

Anyway, this is a tragic story. It's a shame the kid couldn't get the help he needed.
 

zarguhl

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Oct 4, 2010
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Of course they neglect to mention what drugs (legal or illegal) the kid was taking.

If you research all the US cases of kids who killed someone "due to computer games" you'll find every single one of them was on some kind of psychiatric drug. Rarely gets mentioned in the news stories though.
 

Jezzascmezza

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Aug 18, 2009
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I'm sad for two reasons:
1. It's obviously sad that this sort of thing happens, and I feel sorry for those who knew these two people.
2. This will be yet another story that anti-gaming politicians/journalists will use to prove games are evil.