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Chinese Couple Sells Kids To Fund Online Gaming

Posted by samzenpus on from the achievement-unlocked dept.

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?

30 of 223 comments (clear)

  1. Gold? by mfh · · Score: 3, Funny

    What exactly would that be in wow gold?

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    The dangers of knowledge trigger emotional distress in human beings.
    1. Re:Gold? by trum4n · · Score: 2

      How about BitCoins?

  2. Industrious by MischaNix · · Score: 4, Funny

    Three? That's far more children than your average non-Chinese WoW player could produce. Industrious folks, those.

    1. Re:Industrious by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Funny

      : Why do Canadians do it doggy style? A: So they can both watch the hockey game.

    2. Re:Industrious by Opportunist · · Score: 3, Funny

      The joke being?

      Unless you give me a good way to watch the game upside down and still enjoy it, I cannot see the problem.

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      We used to have a Bill of Rights. Now, with the rights gone, all we have left is the bill.
    3. Re:Industrious by FhnuZoag · · Score: 2

      Enh. Many regions have relaxed the law to two children per couple, and the official penalty for violating the law is a fine and withdrawal of state support for education and medical care. Forced abortions are against the law in China, though it sometimes still goes on in the more rural parts.

    4. Re:Industrious by Samalie · · Score: 2

      Why do Canadians do it doggy style? A: So they can both watch the hockey game

      Unless you give me a good way to watch the game upside down and still enjoy it, I cannot see the problem.

      You've never had sex, let alone doggie style, have you?

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    5. Re:Industrious by war4peace · · Score: 2

      I would advise you to look up the meaning of the word "unless".

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      ...gis sdrawkcab (usually not responding to ACs; don't bother posting as AC)
  3. Good for the kids by Manfre · · Score: 3, Insightful

    The couple clearly should not have any kids. It's good that other, hopefully more capable, people will properly care and provide for them.

    1. Re:Good for the kids by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Insightful

      People who buy other people's kids frequently don't have their best interests in mind.

    2. Re:Good for the kids by v1 · · Score: 2

      People who buy other people's kids frequently don't have their best interests in mind.

      And lets not completely forget the so much less likely "infertility" angle of adoption...

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      I work for the Department of Redundancy Department.
    3. Re:Good for the kids by jrroche · · Score: 2

      There's the possibility that some lovely foreign gay couple purchased all three of them because their local adoption agency wouldn't approve them just because they're gay, but gosh darnit, they'll love those kids and give them a wonderful environment and keep all the brothers and sisters together and it'll just be great. There's also the much likelier possibility that they were sold into some kind of slavery, sexual or otherwise, because such a practice is still quite prevalent in various developing countries, China included. I can assure that even if buying children for the purposes of adoption were legal and regulated, a black market for human trafficking would still exist.

    4. Re:Good for the kids by DrgnDancer · · Score: 3, Informative

      In most developed countries if a child runs away from home and shows signs of abuse or neglect, not only will they not be sent back home immediately, but the family will be investigated: possibly losing all their kids and/or going to jail. A friend of mine laid down to take a nap with her 1 and 3 year olds. She was awakened around 35 minutes later by a knock on the door. It was the police, with her 3 year old. He'd apparently decided that he wasn't sleepy, and wanted to walk to gramma's house. He'd created a stool from some books to reach the front doorknob and had walked about three blocks before a neighbor saw him and called the cops.

      Since the kids was obviously cared for and not abused, the cops brought him home; but child services was by the next day to talk about it and continued to check in for a few months. This was for an obviously well dressed, well fed, kid with no bruises or signs of abuse, who had clearly "escaped" at nap time. You can bet things wouldn't have been nearly as polite if there were any signs of abuse or neglect. Now I thought child services was being ridiculously over cautious, but then again I know my friends and I know they take care of their kids. From an outsider's perspective I suppose they were just being prudent.

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    5. Re:Good for the kids by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Informative

      My wife can't have kids. We are in the process of adoption. Going thru the standard channels (that what we do), adoption in china is about 17.000-23.000$ where we live. The relatively big part of that is for the 1 month travel there where you receive some courses on the chinese culture and some endoctrination, the second big part is to put some grease in the channel else your dossier will be stuck, and then all the little costs to do documents translations, organisation costs and so on....

      500$ with all the paper in due form, I take it now !

    6. Re:Good for the kids by HappyEngineer · · Score: 2

      Define "frequently". It's my understanding that adoption is incredibly expensive and actually adopting a newborn baby is very difficult to do. People who don't have $30k to burn may well turn to this avenue with nothing but good intentions. I would be astounded if more than a tiny percentage of baby buyers were intending anything other than raising a child that they couldn't have themselves.

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      Cow Cube
    7. Re:Good for the kids by DrgnDancer · · Score: 2

      Apparently you've never met my friends' kids. He didn't want to "get the Hell out of there" he wanted to visit gramma (of course, gramma living a 3 hour car ride away was a small problem in his clever plan). What could possibly make you think that well taken care of children don't "escape"? Independent and curious kids wander off all the time, they aren't "running away" they're looking for something interesting or wanting to go somewhere that they like to go. It's one of the hardest parts of being the parent of a toddler. My friend of course thought she was "safe" becasue he couldn't reach the doorknob. Full credits for cleverness on the kid's part, if not on his ability to visualize distance.

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      I don't need a million points of light, just two points of multi-mode fiber and a 10 Gig-E router.
  4. not neccessarily a "gaming" story by rjejr · · Score: 5, Insightful

    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.

    1. Re:not neccessarily a "gaming" story by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Insightful

      This is the only reasonable comment I have read on this story. People should study anthropology to understand this issue. Essentially cultures that place very little value on the act of sex will typically place very little value on the results of the low value act. Cultures that place a very high cultural value on the act of sex will place a high value on the results. Asking people to place a low value on an act and a high value on the results of the act creates a contradictory cultural value system which will typically result in social conflict and contradictory activity. Duh.

    2. Re:not neccessarily a "gaming" story by Opportunist · · Score: 2

      Please explain the US attitude towards sex and all things sexually and the overbearing "think of the children" policies.

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      We used to have a Bill of Rights. Now, with the rights gone, all we have left is the bill.
    3. Re:not neccessarily a "gaming" story by bugs2squash · · Score: 2
      I'm a proud liberal, I support abortion rights; but I was horrified to hear that around a fifth of all pregnancies end in abortion (I should thank a right wing zealot for pointing that out by the way). No-one supports that. I don't happen to support criminalizing women for having abortions, but it does not mean that I consider fetuses to be "low value". I just wish we could concentrate on reducing the abortion rate rather than debating how harshly pregnant women "of the wrong sort" should be treated.

      Quite frankly I've heard nothing constructive from either side of the abortion debate, they just want to drive the wedge deeper to fire up their respective bases. It seems to me at times that politicians on both sides would most profit if the abortion rate went up.

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      Nullius in verba
  5. It must be true!! by Dr+Kool,+PhD · · Score: 5, Insightful

    No link to original source? And original source is supposedly Chinese state-run media??

    Don't believe everything you read on the Internet.

    1. Re:It must be true!! by Dyinobal · · Score: 2

      ya this story has been making it's rounds for about a week on the internet and I can't find any real world source for it. It's like the story appeared out of no where and then just proliferated itself.

    2. Re:It must be true!! by Loether · · Score: 2

      The one child rule doesn't apply to all Chinese. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/One-child_policy

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    3. Re:It must be true!! by royallthefourth · · Score: 2

      ABC news also reports video surfaced of President Obama engaging in anal intercourse with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

      Don't tease like that and then fail to link!

    4. Re:It must be true!! by hackingbear · · Score: 2

      The one-child policy is simply ineffective except to people having government or state-own company jobs. If you are one of those, like a relative of mine, you will lose your government jobs. (Note: that's a good thing -- the public employees should be the first to obey rules they set -- a rare case in China.) Otherwise, private employers don't care. If you violate the rule, you need to pay a fine; but if you are rich, you don't care that fine; if you are poor, nothing can be extracted from you. Most friends of mine in China have more than one children.

  6. Achievement! by bradorsomething · · Score: 5, Funny

    You have earned the Achievement: "Know When to Hold 'Em, Know When to Gold 'Em!"

  7. China Daily and Global Times Links Right Here by eldavojohn · · Score: 5, Informative

    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.

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    My work here is dung.
  8. Re:Who did they sell to? by digitig · · Score: 3, Interesting

    Also, organised crime rings use them for begging. It's not unknown for them to kidnap children and starve them to death (because people tend to be more generous if the child is in a desperate state). Presumably if they paid for these kids there would be more incentive to keep them alive, but I'm undecided about whether that would be better.

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  9. Re:Sell each other by Opportunist · · Score: 2

    I do that every day. Actually, only Monday to Friday.

    Don't you?

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    We used to have a Bill of Rights. Now, with the rights gone, all we have left is the bill.
  10. Regulation of adoption expenses by tepples · · Score: 2

    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.