Couple Raises Virtual Child and Starves Real One

NeutronCowboy writes "According to CNN, a South Korean couple was arrested for allowing their baby to starve to death while they were out at an internet cafe. One of their activities there: raising a virtual child in the online game Prius Online. While a South Korean professor calls it a case of Internet Addiction, it's probably more a case of bad coping mechanisms. They were jobless and had apparently little to look forward to."

Comments

You owe me a new irony meter!

[Locke2005]

This article just broke my old irony meter!

More Technophobe Propaganda

[Anonymous Coward]

Flame if you like, but I, personally, don't think that Prius Online was to blame at all. I've played it a little myself - it's rather like SL meets the Sims but in Korean. To me, this seems like another case of general family neglect and not of IAD.

Re:More Technophobe Propaganda

[clone53421]

I, personally, don't think that Prius Online was to blame at all.

Nobody said it was.

Re:More Technophobe Propaganda

[Anonymous Coward]

Yea, it's funny how the most vehement, kneejerky accusations of bias against online games actually comes from those who construct those accusations as a strawman so they can promptly "rebuke them".

Stop attacking nonexistent enemies, my dear grantparent.

Extreme bizarreness

[RockDoctor]

Since Korea is one of the most-wired countries in the world, one has to ask WTF were these (jobless) people doing going to an internet cafe to play an online game? That's almost certain to be more expensive than doing it at home.
I bet that there is something additional going on to what the article describes : maybe the parents wanted to get out of the apartment and away from the child, rather than just "going to play their online game".
Almost certainly a very much more complex story than the article makes out.

Just another datum in favour of compulsory pre-conception parenthood testing and training.

Re:Extreme bizarreness

[introspekt.i]

I think it's more common to do fun game-oriented computing out in public areas like cafe's and LAN-party type places in Korea. It's more a cultural thing there than it is in the United States, or Europe, I'd imagine.

Re:Extreme bizarreness

[John Saffran]

There's a number of reasons why they might have gone to a PC room instead of playing at home, cost and sociability.

The cost per hour for a PC bang was less than a dollar generally and sometimes less than 30c per hour according to http://www.allacademic.com//meta/p_mla_apa_research_citation/1/7/0/0/6/pages170061/p170061-1.php .The reason is that the population density leads to a large number of vendors who compete with each other both making it more available and driving price down. They still make a profit mind you. At 30cents an hour it's probably cheaper to do gaming at the PC bang rather than at home and in addition.

In cultural terms playing at home like it's done in the west is deemed unsociable in korea. Gamers playing in a group (eg. cooperative multiplayer) tend to gather at PC rooms and play there because it's both sociable and it's much better to just call out to each other than to use voice relaying software.

In this case though I suspect that the parents were heavily depressed due to joblessness .. aparently the job market is very tough and competition is incredibly fierce for any good job that opens up. This sounds more like a case of depression rather than addiction .. not that it makes it any better.

Re:Extreme bizarreness

[RockDoctor]

It's more a cultural thing there than it is in the United States, or Europe, I'd imagine.

Possible, but I didn't see any "internet cafe" type places in the the couple of days I spent in Seoul last month.
Admittedly, I don't speak or read Korean, so I might not had recognised the signs, literally. But I saw and recognised lots of other types of shops including plenty of computer/ phone/ tech types of shops, so I'm kind-of doubtful about how common they are. A room full of pasty-faced geeks looks pretty much the same in Britain, the Netherlands, Russia and Tanzania, so I'd have thought I'd have noticed them in Korea too. WTF.

They had little to look forward to?

[elnyka]

They were jobless and had apparently little to look forward to.

What about looking forward to take care of their baby no matter what? Jesus fucking Christ, there are people out the in Africa and Latin America that virtually find their food in garbage cans and still look forward to take care of their children no matter what. And these two e-tards that were jobless in one of the most affluent developed countries couldn't cope with being unemployed and couldn't look forward to take care of their child?

It boggles the mind.

Re:They had little to look forward to?

[adolf]

Spoken like someone with true sanity about them.

Unfortunately, not everyone is so blessed.

South Korea must be boring

[operagost]

A game based on a hybrid with a sticky throttle? BOOOOORING!