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Chinese Couple Sells Children To Support Online Game Addiction

Posted by samzenpus on from the think-of-the-children-no-really-think-of-the-children dept.

hypnosec writes After several controversies arising about in-app purchases, a Chinese couple has done the unthinkable by selling their sons to buy in-app items. An unmarried couple, A Hui and A Mei, severely addicted to online games, were accused of selling their sons and were arrested. In an interview with Guangdong TV, they revealed that they chose to sell their sons to child traffickers. A Hui said A Mei is fond of playing online games and likes to buy game items. As he could not give up his in-app purchases, he was not able to support his first son and they sold him to Fujian-based child traffickers. When the wife bore another son, they felt they would not be able to support their second child either, and they again sold him to the traffickers.

9 of 131 comments (clear)

  1. title by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

    spelling plz, we aren't all Onlione yet

  2. Oblig. Monty Python by Mister+Transistor · · Score: 5, Funny

    Well, that's it, we're broke. It's science experiments for the lot of you!

    --
    -- You are in a maze of little, twisty passages, all different... --
    1. Re:Oblig. Monty Python by HornWumpus · · Score: 5, Funny

      medical experiments

      'medical' is a good woody word. 'science' is tinny.

      --
      John McAfee 'It was like that time I hired that Bangkok prostitute; to do my taxes, while I fucked my accountant'
    2. Re:Oblig. Monty Python by Mister+Transistor · · Score: 5, Insightful

      "Won't somebody think of the children!!" Cry me a river, then piss off. We all have plenty of much more serious stuff to fret over than a couple of losers that made a bad decision. The sheer stupidity and rarity of the action makes it ludicrous enough to be surreal - it makes a joke of itself.

      Lighten up, Francis.

      --
      -- You are in a maze of little, twisty passages, all different... --
  3. Silly season much by Crashmarik · · Score: 3, Insightful

    http://www.huffingtonpost.com/...

    From 2011

    You might think this is getting to be epidemic in China or somebody over there takes advantage of gullible westerners ?

    1. Re:Silly season much by Charliemopps · · Score: 4, Informative

      http://www.huffingtonpost.com/...

      From 2011

      You might think this is getting to be epidemic in China or somebody over there takes advantage of gullible westerners ?

      ok, I'd like to argue your point. You seem to think online gaming addiction isn't a "Thing"
      First you'll have to accept that "Gambling addiction" is real and causes people do these same sorts of things. If you don't that's a different argument.

      Then I, of course, am going to say that Online Gaming addiction is one and the same as Gambling addiction. And not that they are similar to or trigger similar things in the brain... no, it's that online gaming has turned into true gambling.

      As an example I'm going to cite "Neverwinter Online"
      http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/N...

      It's not the only one like this, but it's a good example of what I mean. They've taken strategies strait out of casinos and applied them to an MMO.

      First, they have so many currencies that are so confusing you can never keep track of what you have. There are dozens, if not over 100 of them:
      http://neverwinter.gamepedia.c...

      Secondly, you can BUY one of these currencies with real money. Zen:
      https://billing.arcgames.com/e...

      Then you can turn around any buy a whole host of items with this Zen in the game.
      But, those items are expensive. But, you can buy "Keys" that open magic boxes that drop like rain in the game.
      Those boxes have completely undisclosed "odds" that can change at random.

      This is where it gets interesting...

      You can then sell the items that you got in those boxes at a profit in their online auction house.
      Then use the money you get from the sales to buy more keys
      Open more boxes
      You're getting the idea...

      On occasion you'll get a "winner" and get some fantastic item that sells for a lot.
      Often you'll lose a "small" amount and on occasion a LOT
      To get back into the game you have to buy more Zen...

      and it goes on like this. This is clearly gambling in my eyes. People are being used an manipulated. The fact that they hide the odds should be a red flag, but it's still going on. And before you argue that this isn't gambling because you don't get real world cash out of it... you can. There are plenty of people that will buy your currency for real money if you're selling cheaper than the game is. They make no attempt at all to stop it. There are a lot of people that make their entire living in markets like this. Ironically, most of them in China.

      So yes, I think it could get as crazy as these articles suggest. I don't propose banning it or anything. But more disclosure on odds... less pretend bullshit that this is anything less than what it is: Gambling... would do us all some good.

    2. Re:Silly season much by gnasher719 · · Score: 4, Funny

      Doesn't China still have a 1 child law.

      So? Who says you can't have a second child after you sold the first one?

    3. Re:Silly season much by kesuki · · Score: 4, Interesting

      I have gambled many times many ways and it is nowhere near as addictive as gaming is. i have played video games since i was 5 i think, i am currently 36. in my 31 years as a gaming addict there never was enough time to game... oh i learned a few other hobbies but gaming was always the excuse for someone to get me to read or do other acts besides the gaming. portable gaming just made the problem worse, and i started to have money -- to rent games. so i rented. my grades in school suffered because i always had to have that gaming fix. when i skimmed through school and finally got a job, i used that income to you guessed it game. i had 14 credit cards and an inability to hold down a job -- because it interfered with my gaming. had i hit rock bottom? nope i got a bankruptcy and eliminated all my debt all $35,000 of it and with nothing to show for it, because i lived off cash advances when i couldn't hold down jobs just to keep all the bills paid. and that wasn't rock bottom not yet. i had had problem in years past with starcraft, and broke, living with my parents i found the sequel to a game i had played years ago, the old game being warcraft II. warcraft III was way more addictive and when it's expansion came out i played it for a long time warcraft III The frozen throne is a game i literally played 8,000 ladder matched games plus countless thousands of non ladder games such as DOTA. this was rock bottom for me. i would play a good 14-16 hours a day into just one game i read this website and other while waiting for matches or when i felt the game was lost and stopped trying. i was having issues sleeping at night and i wasn't on any drugs not even caffeine since i had no funding to pay for it. i basically cracked and developed PTSD but it went unnoticed and i finally got help i needed, for other issues that were not related to the gaming but perhaps were increased by it. i had to quit games cold turkey as in hospitals it is very hard to game seriously because everything with a cord is prohibited and i only saw people using handheld games, like a hand held poker game, for example. nothing even as close to as addictive as the warcraft 3 game. tbh i even occasionally play games but i set pretty strict rules about when and how much i can game. fortunately i like to read and watch movies, and it no longer is 'instead of gaming' but rather because i don't dare game more than a few times a day (currently playing League of Legends a dota clone, which was spawned from warcraft to keep up micro skills of ladder players.) it is a free to play game, and is slightly easier to play than regular warcraft 3 tft. but even with all this addiction i never bought in game items (and there are plenty of them to buy) though i can see how people can be addicted to that like gambling. the adrenaline rush of playing a game is way more addictive than drugs or money, because there are ways to find cheaper fixes that are just as addictive. money is nice don't get me wrong, and yes chemicals can make you feel good but, dude an AAA video game is $60 a computer to play it starts around $400, for decent parts, my personal rig cost me $1100 in parts, including os cost, and it plays everything out there. how much heroin can $1,200 buy you? whereas between renting and internet research finding the game that addicts you most can take you down a long and windy road that only requires a little bit of electricity compared to drug costs to get the same effect.

      --
      https://www.gnu.org/philosophy/free-sw.html
    4. Re:Silly season much by baka_toroi · · Score: 3, Insightful

      This in in the first line. This is the second line. And this is the third line, with an empty line in between.

      Except it's not, because Slashdot is a piece of shit and requires you to use the break html tag, which not everyone knows about. Maybe it's been fixed in Slashdot beta, I don't know.