Facebook Gamer Who Let Son Drown Gets 10 Years

[Saviordd1]

Wasnt there a VERY similar story like this involving a WoW addict in england?

Wtf is wrong with the world...

 

[ThePilgrim101]

I love how the actual "gaming" part of this story is actually tangential to the problem.

Problem: She thought toddlers could be "independent".

Facebook doesn't really enter into it

 

[Mumorpuger]

This is a very sad story.

 

[northman]

This is tragic, but I find it hard to feel mad at this woman because it seemed like more of a casual accident than because of complete and utter negligence. It's not like her son starved to death because she'd been playing WoW for 72 straight hours.

What I find to be even worse is the fact that she's got 10 years for this, while someone who kills someone deliberately (or maybe under the influence of some kind of substance) only gets a couple of months to a couple of years.

Thirteen month olds should never be left alone, let alone when they are in the bathtub.

I'm unsure what the "usual" sentence is for this, but ten years does seem like a long sentence since I'm sure the guilt alone is enough to ruin this woman's life.

But again, no thirteen month old is independent. Truly negligent parenting and if she has any older children it's a miracle they survived so long.

 

[vansau]

Wow only in america eh, and such a crap game as well.

Dude, this stuff happens EVERYWHERE [http://www.escapistmagazine.com/news/view/103424-Details-Dont-Add-Up-In-Story-About-Mothers-Game-Addiction]

 

[Tzekelkan]

There are way too many of these kinds of stories these days, meaning that there's more than zero. They're tragic and appalling and the only good thing that might come about from them is some other parents might have a revelation that kids come before games. That said, I'm not holding my breath.

Personally, I'd be happier if the woman wasn't described as "Facebook Gamer", which is just a preference, and rather as "Cold Hearted *****" - which is more of a reason.

Exactly. If she herself isn't blaming or even mentioning the game, why are we calling her a gamer? If she had been ironing shirts in the other room while the kid drowned, would the headline be "Shirt Ironing Woman Who Let Son Drown Gets 10 Years"?

She's not a cold hearted *****. Just a dumb parent, and those aren't exactly rare. This getting coverage because a game is somehow involved is sickening. It's exactly - exactly - like the fun times we used to have with Jack Thompson: confusing correlation with causation and damaging the image of gamers in the eyes of the non-gaming public.

Personally I find the cold hearted ***** statement is more because she thought she was gonna turn her son into a mama's boy by spending just enough time to wash him in a bath tub.

Cuddling him all the time, not letting him do ANYTHING by themselves (notice the word dangerous isn't included), such things turn your son into a mama's boy, and even then not with a 100% effective rate. Not taking the time to wash your son is just careless parenting.

Well, whatever you call her, whether it's *****, idiot or dumb, we agree: what she did was stupid.

Nevertheless, I will stress that video games had nothing to do with it and all the comments saying "oh, it was over a shit game too", "haha, looks like it's not fps that kill people", "zynga is evil" are perpetuating a negative stereotype that we're fighting so hard to abolish. We wouldn't even be hearing about this crap (which, unfortunately, happens every fucking day but it's [thankfully, could you imagine only seeing this kind of stuff in the news?] not deemed news-worthy) if the chick went to a quikie yoga session inbetween neglecting her offspring.

 

[Soods]

Spoiler

The resemblance!

On one hand I'm happy that facebook games get more negative attention, but on the other hand I feel sorry for the kid

 

[Canid117]

Shannon Johnson, 34, claims that she didn't want her son, Joseph, to grow up as a "mama's boy" and was an "independent" toddler who didn't need adult supervision.

What a bullshit excuse for manslaughter.

 

[fix-the-spade]

Forgive me for sounding heartless.

But.

It strikes me as incredibly ironic that violent games in kids hands cause so much furore, yet apparently innocent 'social' games are the ones causing actual, confirmable deaths (admittedly only when mixed with stupid people). These stories are becoming slowly more regular, no doubt even more so as internet gaming steadily spreads out of geekdom and into real life.

 

[Tzekelkan]

This is tragic, but I find it hard to feel mad at this woman because it seemed like more of a casual accident than because of complete and utter negligence. It's not like her son starved to death because she'd been playing WoW for 72 straight hours.

What I find to be even worse is the fact that she's got 10 years for this, while someone who kills someone deliberately (or maybe under the influence of some kind of substance) only gets a couple of months to a couple of years.

Thirteen month olds should never be left alone, let alone when they are in the bathtub.

I'm unsure what the "usual" sentence is for this, but ten years does seem like a long sentence since I'm sure the guilt alone is enough to ruin this woman's life.

But again, no thirteen month old is independent. Truly negligent parenting and if she has any older children it's a miracle they survived so long.

I just remembered a story I heard today on the radio (can't find it on the web): a kid falling off a balcony here in Brussels because the parents left the balcony door half-open and the child unsupervised for a few minutes. All it takes is a few minutes and boom, your life is ruined.

I don't know if 10 years in prison is a suitable sentence either... it was her own kid she killed, by accident. It's bad, but she already ruined her own life, 10 years of prison will basically kill her chance at any sort of normal life. Is that what we want? I know killing a toddler is horrific, but do more lives need to be ruined afterwards by the justice system? It's like how they say, "two wrongs don't make a right".

 

[s0meNo0b]

"Independent toddler," and "didn't need supervision," was all I needed to know...

 

[Celtic_Kerr]

There are way too many of these kinds of stories these days, meaning that there's more than zero. They're tragic and appalling and the only good thing that might come about from them is some other parents might have a revelation that kids come before games. That said, I'm not holding my breath.

Personally, I'd be happier if the woman wasn't described as "Facebook Gamer", which is just a preference, and rather as "Cold Hearted *****" - which is more of a reason.

Exactly. If she herself isn't blaming or even mentioning the game, why are we calling her a gamer? If she had been ironing shirts in the other room while the kid drowned, would the headline be "Shirt Ironing Woman Who Let Son Drown Gets 10 Years"?

She's not a cold hearted *****. Just a dumb parent, and those aren't exactly rare. This getting coverage because a game is somehow involved is sickening. It's exactly - exactly - like the fun times we used to have with Jack Thompson: confusing correlation with causation and damaging the image of gamers in the eyes of the non-gaming public.

Personally I find the cold hearted ***** statement is more because she thought she was gonna turn her son into a mama's boy by spending just enough time to wash him in a bath tub.

Cuddling him all the time, not letting him do ANYTHING by themselves (notice the word dangerous isn't included), such things turn your son into a mama's boy, and even then not with a 100% effective rate. Not taking the time to wash your son is just careless parenting.

Well, whatever you call her, whether it's *****, idiot or dumb, we agree: what she did was stupid.

Nevertheless, I will stress that video games had nothing to do with it and all the comments saying "oh, it was over a shit game too", "haha, looks like it's not fps that kill people", "zynga is evil" are perpetuating a negative stereotype that we're fighting so hard to abolish. We wouldn't even be hearing about this crap (which, unfortunately, happens every fucking day but it's [thankfully, could you imagine only seeing this kind of stuff in the news?] not deemed news-worthy) if the chick went to a quikie yoga session inbetween neglecting her offspring.

They're being ironic of the fact that she's probably the ONLY person that has been convicted of child negligence while playing video games who HASN'T blamed it on the company. Everytime one of these stupid people are arrested they say "Blame Zynga" or "It wouldn't have happened if the game wasn't being so addictive".

So people are being ironic about the fact that she's actually manning up to what she's done

 

[Mr. Fister]

There are way too many of these kinds of stories these days, meaning that there's more than zero. They're tragic and appalling and the only good thing that might come about from them is some other parents might have a revelation that kids come before games. That said, I'm not holding my breath.

Personally, I'd be happier if the woman wasn't described as "Facebook Gamer", which is just a preference, and rather as "Cold Hearted *****" - which is more of a reason.

Exactly. If she herself isn't blaming or even mentioning the game, why are we calling her a gamer? If she had been ironing shirts in the other room while the kid drowned, would the headline be "Shirt Ironing Woman Who Let Son Drown Gets 10 Years"?

This story wouldn't be on this website if that was the case. Sounds like a typical case of "slow news day" to me, no offense to the mother in this story.

 

[Ghengis John]

Shannon Johnson, 34, claims that she didn't want her son, Joseph, to grow up as a "mama's boy" and was an "independent" toddler who didn't need adult supervision.

Every time I hear this woman spout her bull shit about how the kid was "preternaturally mature" or "an independent toddler" I just want to hit her. What she really means to say is "I expected my child to raise itself." Keeping their child safe is a mother's main responsibility. That child was defenseless and she left it to the wolves. The very fact that her child drowned proves that she was wrong. And it's no wonder the judge threw the book at her. That she could still believe that nonsense even after her kid died and can still keep repeating it proves she's learned nothing.

Um sorry, but how the hell did a kid drown in a bath tub?

Easily. You can drown in half an inch of water if you're face down. Now imagine how much water will drown a toddler, face down. This lady is such a failure as a parent. A horrible, horrible, lazy, selfish woman. Can you imagine what this kid would have turned out like anyways if she couldn't even pay attention to him long enough to give him a bath?

 

[Tzekelkan]

-snip-

They're being ironic of the fact that she's probably the ONLY person that has been convicted of child negligence while playing video games who HASN'T blamed it on the company. Everytime one of these stupid people are arrested they say "Blame Zynga" or "It wouldn't have happened if the game wasn't being so addictive".

So people are being ironic about the fact that she's actually manning up to what she's done

I guess? So why are most the people posting here blaming the game? I'm no fan of Facebook games either, but that doesn't hurt my impartiality when placing the blame where it needs to lie (squarely on the shoulders of stupidity).

 

[Hopposai]

A very tragic death for a mother, who was probably trying to decompress from the kid. Also another negative blow to all gamers. But as a gamer parent I have learned you need to know the limits of what you can do with your games and be responsible for your kids. Now if this was on her laptop she a dumb ass, just for the fact she could have been in the bathroom with the kid. I do it all the time with WOW. Also ten minutes is a long time to notice your kids is no longer making noise in the bathtub. Oh and by the way infants become toddlers at 24 months. She still had another year before she could even think about installing some independence into the child.

 

[Muco5681]

I'm sure i will get my self ban'ed for this but here it goes
this kinda makes me glad don't get me wrong the death of a child is terrible to say the least but i cant help but to think of all the people in the years past that has linked world of warcraft to a crack were you neglect everything don't sleep and eat pizza and drink coke all day long this story kinda rubs the unpleasant truth of ''don't blame the mmo blame the person'' in the faces of them

but that is just my opinion i could be wrong

 

[TheYellowCellPhone]

You'd think the death of her son wasn't enough consequence. Pile ten years on it, will ya? >.>

 

[Twilight_guy]

So she though her toddler was independent enough to be left alone in the bathtub and didn't want him top be a "momma's boy". Gee lady he's a toddler and your already trying to ship him out on his own. What were you expecting him to move out by the fourth grade or something? Come on.