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Chinese Couple Sells Kids To Fund Online Gaming
A Chinese couple who really like to game are under arrest for selling their kids and converting the money into game currency. From the article: "In 2009, Li Lin and Li Juan welcomed their second child, a baby girl, and came up with the idea to sell her for money to fund their online game obsession. They did so, receiving RMB 3,000 (less than $500), which they spent entirely shortly after. The couple then proceeded to sell their first child and got 10 times as much for him -- RMB 30,000, or about $4600. Upon having their third child -- another boy -- the parents followed in their previous footsteps and also got RMB 30,000 for him." I wonder what the "kid seller" achievement looks like?
What exactly would that be in wow gold?
The dangers of knowledge trigger emotional distress in human beings.
Three? That's far more children than your average non-Chinese WoW player could produce. Industrious folks, those.
I believe that looks like a jail cell.
The couple clearly should not have any kids. It's good that other, hopefully more capable, people will properly care and provide for them.
How can we judge whether or not this was a good decision without the requisite information?
Working...
With a billion people in China, and rampant starvation, who the heck would pay that much (relatively) for a child?! Did they sell to a foreign couple or what?
A NYC lawyer blogs. http://www.chuangblog.com/
People have been selling their kids since, well, people have been having kids. I'll admit this is the first time I've heard of it strictly for gaming purposes, but they didn't trade in their kids for games - they sold them for money - only what they did with the money is different.
No link to original source? And original source is supposedly Chinese state-run media??
Don't believe everything you read on the Internet.
You have earned the Achievement: "Know When to Hold 'Em, Know When to Gold 'Em!"
Even just birthing a child costs money (hospital bill, excess food bill for the mother, etc.), I don't know the exact figures though, was it really worth it?
What do I know, I'm just an idiot, right?
Comment removed based on user account deletion
they didn't seem to regret their transaction(s) because they sold three kids (and not all at once). They seem to have gotten better at it as they went along, getting higher and higher prices. (Or maybe the later ones were just cuter/harder working).
http://www.pcworld.com/article/229318/kid_sells_kidney_for_ipad_2_regrets_transaction.html
...a gold farm is shopping for more child slave labor to produce more virtual crap to sell to negligent parents.
pi = 3.141592653589793helpimtrappedinauniversefactory7
Keep in mind that this does not just happen in China. I can think offhand of human trafficking rings in the United States (Times Square, San Diego, LA, Ohio, Florida, the DC-Maryland Corridor, New Jersey, and many other places), Europe (Germany, Britain, Italy, Albania, Moldova, to name a few), Asia (Russia, China, Korea, Tawain) and more.
In the United States, for example, several hundred thousand teens are at high risk of being trafficked each year.
See River of Innocents for a good primer on the subject.
-- IANAL, this isn't legal advice, and definitely isn't legal advice for you. Also, Squee!
Eventually, the husband will sell the wife or vice versa.
No link to original source? And original source is supposedly Chinese state-run media??
Don't believe everything you read on the Internet.
Here is a link from the English China Daily which is state run. And here's a tabloid branch of the People's Daily running the story but usually this paper focuses on global issues.
My work here is dung.
DISREGARD CHILDREN, ACQUIRE CURRENCY.
Okay not really, but the joke had to be made.
The more you know, the more you have to say and the more you should listen.
http://games.slashdot.org/story/11/05/25/2215206/China-Alleged-To-Use-Prisoners-In-Lucrative-Internet-Gaming
Can I run that the other way? I have some game gold I've saved up for a pet.
I know if they were white and living in the US, we'd say "white trash" or "trailer trash." I can think of no such name for these people though. Most asian stereotypes are actually pretty positive. The frequent addiction to gaming/gambling and drugs doesn't get much discussion, but China's history in that regard is extreme and goes back thousands of years.
uh. they do worse things to baby girls because of the "one child" law (you can only have one.. face stiff fines for every extra kid) boys are traditionally "worth more" as evidenced by the selling price(s)
that baby could have been killed simply for being the "wrong" gender.
now, sqeezing puppies as source of income is fucked up.. but less fucked up than killing girls.
Child Farmers!
So short sighted thinking! All they'd have to do is sustain them for about 5 years and show them how to farm gold.
tststs, people slaughtering the goose that lays the golden eggs...
We used to have a Bill of Rights. Now, with the rights gone, all we have left is the bill.
It looks like there is more of a market for boys. Their girl sold for $500, while their boys sold for $4600 each.
Whenever I read about these stories from china, I wonder... how much is true? It's sourced from a Chinese paper, which means it could very easily be a government plant. An effort to scare the people away from western MMORPGs and the internet in general, where they may be exposed to non-Chinese culture. It wouldn't be the first case of a government creating a moral panic for political reasons, and when it comes to manipulating media and population China has perhaps more skill than any other government.
M-M-M-M-Monster douche!
I8-D
First, derailed trains due to incompetent engineering.
Yeah, trains only derail in China.
Seven puppies were harmed during the making of this post.
Currently there is a min scandal running in China where officials sized “illegal” children and put them in an orphanage. Western couples would then adopt the kids, paying a lawyer to handle the paperwork – because in an opaque legal system like China you can’t do it yourself. And you can’t tell the difference between a legitimate fee and one that is not. The lawyer would kickback a portion of their fees, and the orphanage would kickback funds to the official who sized the ‘illegal” child.
So the kids tend to wind up in fairly good shape – if you discount the fact they are ripped away from their original families.
plus when you lend them out there having to pay for the feed!
Seriously, how does this selling of kids even work? Is there a section for that on Chinese eBay? Is this just a payment for the permission to adopt, paid by infertile parents? Do adoption agencies bid on them, hoping to "remarket" them with a profit?
Bloop!
Achievement Unlocked
Sold A Child - 50G
Scissors and needle + thread. Cut his off, sew hers up.
Done
i beleve they lifted the 1 child rule in china. what normaly would happon is if the kid was not a male they would up in the river or sold.
Pretty horrific if you ask me as a father of two young children. I worry about my kids health and safety all the time and they bring more joy to me than anything else ever has. If you can't take care of the kids, or don't want to, learn to use birth control. One of the reasons there are so many f***ed up people in this world is that they had parents that didn't care about their existence.
I know that's all I got from this story.
The invisible hand of the market has spoken and proclaimed men 10x better than women!
Why is it wrong to sell your kids. People give them away all the time, and have little say in what happens to them after. What harm is done if they make some money on it?
I'm not saying, "what harm could ever possibly happen," of course anything is possible. I'm asking what harm is done merely by accepting payment? Most women who plan to give their kid up for adoption while pregnant are often well cared for by the adoptees. That's a form of payment as well, but we allow for it. It's not so different.
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/07/26/world/asia/26china.html?_r=3
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2011-07-25/ge-healthcare-moves-x-ray-base-to-china-no-job-cuts-planned.html
http://blogs.forbes.com/raykwong/2011/07/25/friends-dont-let-friends-become-chinese-billionaires/
Many caring people adopt (a.k.a. purchase) children from other countries, which would certainly lead to a better life for the purchased child.
Legitimate licensed adoption agencies (a.k.a. child trading organizations) are expected to vet the buyer's ability to take care of the child, and they strictly limit the types of expenses that an agency may include in the price of the child.
Water will break at the start of labor, but does not imply that the labor will necessarily complete in the home.
That depends of course on how far it is to the nearest birthing clinic and what means of transport are available. For example, public transit might not run at a given hour, on a given day of the week, or on a given holiday.
Not quite lifted, but heavily modified. Per wikipedia the policy is now done on a province level with different rules in different provinces, along with many loopholes and exceptions.
Don't know something? Look it up. Still don't know? Then ask.
Huh?
The conservative side of the USA places an extremely high value on sex. Remember, virginity is a blessing that should be preserved until marriage. If you're not a virgin when you marry, you shouldn't wear white. It's highly valued here, as a result of our warped morals.
These are the same people crying 'think of the children.'
The USA would seem to confirm the GP's point.
Yeah, because individuals are totally like the government.
I am not devoid of humor.