Gaming Addiction Leads to Death of 3-Month Old Korean Girl

[The Heik]

Gaming Addiction Leads to Death of 3-Month Old Korean Girl

Gaming addiction turned horrifically tragic as the three-month-old daughter of a Korean couple starved to death while her parents were caring for a virtual daughter during a 12-hour MMOG session.

The couple, identified only as "the Kims" due to Korean privacy laws, had met in 2008 over an online dating site and subsequently married and had a child. The husband, 41, and the wife, 25 were both unemployed, living with the parents of the wife. Both spent most of their time at 24-hour internet cafes, notorious for crowds of gamers and dense cigarette smoke, even during the pregnancy. The couple called the police in September to report their daughter's death after returning from a 12-hour gaming session.

The autopsy results were chilling. The child, who had been born prematurely, died of malnutrition. The couple also admitted to feeding her rotten powdered milk as well as spanking her whenever she cried. The child was generally neglected in favor of an online daughter over the Korean MMOG PRIUS, which was consuming much of the couple's play time at internet cafes while their daughter was left alone and unfed.

South Korea has had serious problems with gaming addiction, which has led to a number of deaths via exhaustion in the past few years. "There's no certain clinical indicator to define 'game addiction' but our study shows that brain PET [scan] images of suspected online game addicts are very similar to that of a cocaine addict," Dr. Kim Sang Eun of Seoul National University Bundang Hospital said. The problem is reportedly even higher in Korea due to the nation's 95 percent broadband access, and the fact that there are more mobile phones in South Korea than there are people.

While obviously an extreme example, it is nevertheless one that cannot be ignored. Fortunately, most gamers aren't this irresponsible, but it's still a very real risk in our world.

Source: <a href=http://abcnews.go.com/International/baby-death-alleged-result-parents-online-games-addiction/story?id=10007040>ABC News via <a href=http://gamepolitics.com/2010/03/04/korean-parents-neglect-real-child-virtual-one>GamePolitics

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Oy vey........ this shameful neglect of their child combined with the subject matter of the "Baang your Dead" article shows that the gamers of Korea are swiftly becoming the worst in the world.

Now I know how fun video games can be. I myself have done more than one dusk 'til dawn gaming binge. But people really have to remember that they live in the physical world, and here one needs certain things to go on gaming. One must learn to do everything in moderation, else it will end up consuming them, no matter the focus.

 

[A Pious Cultist]

Rotten food....spanking a 3 MONTH OLD BABY?!?
These people don't deserve to have children if they are going to treat them like that.

What an understatement. People who just leave their children while they go and play video games don't deserve to have kids. People who let their baby starve, feed it rotten food, then spank it when it cries deserve to be beaten to within an inch of their lives then locked away.

 

[Premonition]

I feel both sorry for that child as for gamers in a whole. Primarily for that child though. Poor thing.

 

[GamerPhate]

Is it okay though if I myself starve to death through lack of food due to unemployment and filling the time between searching for work gaming?

 

[Crystal Cuckoo]

Wait, they were both unemployed, they were still living with their parents, they were already prone to spending long hours at net cafes, and yet they /chose/ to have a child, one they were likely to neglect?

This doesn't reflect badly on gamers, this reflects badly on stupid people.

[sup] Didn't this already happen with a couple who were addicted to WoW? [/sup]

 

[Altorin]

I blame the parents of the wife, actually. What sort of self respecting parent would let their unemplayed 41 year old son in law stay in their house?

and I know the baby wasn't technically their responsibility, where were they while this baby was starving to death. They should have acted in the child's best interest, despite their daughter and her deadbeat husband's gaming.

DOn't get me wrong, the parents are horrible horrible people, but what about the baby's grandparents who seemed to allow this all to happen under their roof?

 

[rddj623]

Positively ridiculous.

 

[Ben Legend]

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What the fuck?
Did they think their child was as easy to take care of as some virtual baby?
Seriously, people need to learn to take care of themselves before they bring a child into the world.

 

[Darth_Dude]

The bastards, I feel really angry and I don't know why. Thats just terrible.

Rotten food....spanking a 3 MONTH OLD BABY?!?
These people don't deserve to have children if they are going to treat them like that.

What an understatement. People who just leave their children while they go and play video games don't deserve to have kids. People who let their baby starve, feed it rotten food, then spank it when it cries deserve to be beaten to within an inch of their lives then locked away.

They should be killed, the world wouldn't miss them.

 

[Rajin Cajun]

What is up with Koreans and dying over video games?

 

[Lazy Kitty]

Wait? They chose a virtual daughter over the real thing?

 

[Aanorith]

I don't think I could live with myself after something like this. Spanking whenever the child cried, feeding her rotten milkpowder. I don't like even thinking about it. I just hope these people wake up and realise what they've done.

 

[JEBWrench]

To all the people saying that we need to restrict peoples reproductive rights: Just stop and think for a moment: How could you trust the government not to abuse this legislation? How quickly would this result in a dystopia where the state gets to decide which type of people it needs and which it doesnt?

Hey, look, it's a voice of reason! I thought those had disappeared from the internet. Every single time someone says "license to breed", and all those other ridiculous phrases thereof, I ask by what standards are people to be allowed?

On topic! Sorry to tell you all, but the kid's death was directly because of a videogame addiction. By bad parents, yes. But if the parents hadn't have been videogame addicts, then the kid wouldn't have died in this particular way.

Not that the kid would've been all sunshine and daisies, but, slightly more likely to be alive.

 

[Dommyboy]

So what happens to the parents?

Sorry if I missed that bit of info.

 

[IckleMissMayhem]

Austin, could you do me a favor and change the title of the news?

Change it to "Awful parents cause death of 3-month old Korean Girl"

Cause addictions don't kill people. People kill people.

This. Neglect is neglect. Reasons behind it are usually irrelevant - as in this case. Gaming doesn't need any more bad press, we get enough from people as stupid as this couple obviously are. They deserve to suffer as much as they made that baby suffer, if not more.

 

[TheSeventhLoneWolf]

Real darn shame that. She probably had so much to live for.

 

[SmugFrog]

There are some people in the world that want so badly to have children, and they can't.

It makes me sick to hear about people that neglect their children.

 

[Foxtrotk72]

thats horrible! the parents maybe had no life too busy focusing on the game instead of the child, I would never do that to a child.

 

[AWAR]

Austin, could you do me a favor and change the title of the news?

Change it to "Awful parents cause death of 3-month old Korean Girl"

Cause addictions don't kill people. People kill people.

Correct, it could,ve been drug or alcohol addiction.