Mother addicted to computer games strangles child: police

Mother addicted to computer games strangles child: police

www.smh .com.au

A South Korean mother has been arrested for allegedly killing her three-year-old son while she was tired from internet game-playing, police said.


The government estimates the number of web addicts at about two million in a nation of about 50 million. From next year, it will offer free software to people at risk, to limit the time they spend on the web.

(visit the link for the full news article)

Last month, a 15-year-old boy committed suicide after killing his mother for scolding him over excessive playing of computer games.

In May, a 41-year-old man was sentenced to two years in jail after he and his wife left their baby daughter to die of malnutrition while raising a "virtual child" on the internet.

In February, a 32-year-old man died after reportedly playing games for five days with few breaks.

This sort of stuff is mess'd up i cant believe people take this so seriously,

www.smh .com.au
(visit the link for the full news article)

and here we go.

blame the video games. It's the video games fault.

There's 11 million + subscribers that play a game called World of Warcraft, and one lady goes whacko, kills her child, and presto....WoW is evil.

Society needs intellectually cleansed.

How about, instead, we call this what it is: A psychotic woman had a child when she never should have been allowed to. Nobody failed her. Nobody failed the child (except his mother and father) and the damned video game had NOTHING to do with it.

Somewhere in the last 40 to 50 years, we as a species have found a way to place all of our faults on other people, instead of being responsible and intelligent and accepting responsibility for our own actions.

"It's not my fault i strangled my child! I was obsessed with the +6 sword of might & vanquishing!!! Sue Blizzard!!!!!"

Truly sad that a mother not only put a computer game ahead of her child.. Then to kill they child due to her addiction to the game..
Lighting joss sticks and saying prayer that the child have a better life in the next world.. Never understood how a mother could kill her own children...

Originally posted by PrimePorkchop
Society needs intellectually cleansed.

while i agree that videogames are not the problem, people are...

i don't agree with that statement at all, too eerie and reminding of Eugenics.

carefull what you wish for, when you realize you wont fit the intellectual standard aswell.

...addiction is addiction.... as trite as that sounds its true...

...doesnt matter what the addiction is to - abuse (giving or receiving), attention, being right all the time, booze, chocolate, cleaning, coffee, drama, drugs (legal or not), food, games, gossip, having kids, internet, keeping up with the jones', message boards, music, noise, paranoia, religion, sex, soda pop, throwing up, tv, violence, whining, work...

...there is nothing that a person cant get addicted to - given the appropriate circumstances...

...this latest deal is sad but its not anything new... kids have always suffered because of parents caught in an addiction...

reply to post by Freedom_is_Slavery


I said it about the farmville woman who killed her baby, and I will say it again here also.

The fact she was addicted to games had nothing to do with any of this.
She has the mentality of someone who would kill her own kid, that's it.

It doesn't matter what was happening in her life, she was hungry, she had no sleep, she was playing video games, it's meaningless, she was but a "trigger" away from killing her own child.
If it was the same person in 1802, she would have done it, and there would have been no video games to blame then.

To most normal people the idea of taking an Innocent life is so foreign, and so incomprehensible we search for a way to categorize it, to find a "reason".
In this case the reason assigned is "game addiction".
Perhaps we should stop trying to find reasons and admit, there is no reason , we don't understand this at all.

reply to post by Freedom_is_Slavery


Seriously, I am with you on this one...I am terrified of trying to get my son off his L.O.L and WoW and Runescape games...truly terrified...is there a hotline?

To some extents the video games need to be blamed. It's like saying that people who smoke cigarettes are the only one's wrong because they know it's bad for them. That's a given, but what about the company that made those cigarettes far worse than anybody imagined? When video games are created, I know tons of money goes into the psychological aspect of said game to ensure the players are "sucked in". They are just as much to blame as the people playing the game. They're taking over our lives but not everyone is as in tune as ATS members to realize it.

reply to post by Wyn Hawks


I agree and I disagree on this....some people have addictions and do not abuse, neglect, or kill their children, however the already mentally instability coupled with the addiction does increase the likelihood...and as an addict of coffee and cola, oh and cigarrettes, who has very well cared for children, I can personally attest to this, but I am mentally stable, and intelligent. There are sets of criteria when coupled together would seem to insinuate the addiction played a part, but it was not the ONLY factor.Just saying.

reply to post by newBodyoldSoul


then why stop at videogames, you are gonna end up blaming society as a whole in the way it is set up.

it's not a problem linked to videogames aswell, it's rooted in society as we know it having it's morals and values(or lack of them) all messed up and twisted from the get go.

if all unnecessary human deaths were due to videogames, this world would be ALOT better.


how can i be concerned with people dying over luxury items like videogames while there is still more people who can't afford videogames who are dying for varied reasons daily?

reply to post by AnotherYOU


I have no idea why you got so worked up, it seems like we're on the same side of the fence. I was just pointing out the fact that the people who create the video games go to great lengths to understand the human psyche. It's no coincidence people get addicted, the companies who want to profit find out humans weaknesses and jump on it. And I even started my post with TO SOME EXTENTS. Not all, some.

Lastly, I wasn't asking for your concern about such "luxury items" like video games. God forbid I take concern in a growing trend around the world. The lady is wrong for killing her son. Im not brushing that over. I was just bringing up the other aspect of the situation at hand.

reply to post by newBodyoldSoul


i'm not "worked up" i'm just adding to the discussion, yes i think we're sitting at the same side of the fence, though in truth there is actually no fence.

But i believe someone once made a point that rang true on this particular issue, not sure if it was here in ATS i read it or somewhere else, but it kind of went along the lines that, anyone who commits a murder does have personal lattent mental issues that would cause the behaviour, meanwhile videogame developers are also sane and productive members of society who as such develop the games in hope the people who play them are aswell.

Even though it's a "trend" or just widely more reported, there is still a overwhelming slice of the pie of videogame users who are not murdering people.

and nevermind my other rant, it was just that, a rant.

Originally posted by ldyserenity
reply to post by Wyn Hawks

 

I agree and I disagree on this....some people have addictions and do not abuse, neglect, or kill their children

...well, sure, there are no absolutes - but - its fairly safe to say that the majority of parents with addictive personalities do mistreat their kids in some manner... its just par for the course...

Originally posted by ldyserenity
however the already mentally instability coupled with the addiction does increase the likelihood...

...yep but lots of people who would be described as mentally stable mistreat their kids too...

Originally posted by ldyserenity
and as an addict of coffee and cola, oh and cigarrettes

, who has very well cared for children, I can personally attest to this, but I am mentally stable, and intelligent.

...when i was raising my boatload, i thought i was smarter than the average bear... worked real hard at being fair (i thought) and not being overbearing (i thought) - but - my kids are in their 30s now and have told me their versions of some things which caused me to rethink my stance... the words of a wise old lady i once knew came rushing in, reminding me that we are more than just our perception of ourselves...

Originally posted by ldyserenity
There are sets of criteria when coupled together would seem to insinuate the addiction played a part, but it was not the ONLY factor.Just saying.

...surely there were other factors... she couldve had a history of mental illness or maybe she's always been self-absorbed or she couldve been a really terrific person until addiction got a hold of her...

reply to post by ldyserenity


You could always pull the plug at the router. I find a computer disconnected from the internet becomes quite boring, and the desire to go do something in the real world increases.

Humans take the path of least resistance, quite often - and games (particularly internet ones) exploit this. Just look at the crafting systems in a number of games - the whole idea that you go out and make something from raw materials that you find in the dungeons and lands of some Medieval realm. It's easy for people to exchange the sense of accomplishment one would get from actually doing something with a game-derived accomplishment "I just carved a bow out of wood!" ... well, not really - but, it feels better than just buying it at a shop in the game.

The other driving aspect is the community. I can interact with ten times as many people on the internet in any given day as I could in person. I can shop and chat, do school-work and chat, and even do work and chat on the internet. A little more difficult to do that in person. And in games - what's more fun than getting a hundred of your friends together and going on a stomping party through the aforementioned Medieval lands?

Personally, I'm a little more into shooters as an online game - the teamwork there is a little more tactical and less knowing what series of buttons to push to counter-act the type of opponent you are up against.

In either case - if you do something drastic like unplug the computer or set it up to forcibly restrict user time-restraints (you can set it up so that people can only log on at certain times and have it log them out at certain times - IE - set your son as a user, disable the guest account, password-protect the administrator account, set it up so that he can only be logged on between 7 and 9 PM Monday-through-Friday, and maybe something like 9 - 11AM and 6-8 PM on the weekends; and set it to log him out when time's up) - you need to be sure to have something to divert his attention. Not just "find something else to do" - but give him something else to do (that isn't yard/house work). Say, help with making dinner - or do something.... even if he doesn't like it - it's less likely to get the "I'm going to kill you in your sleep" psychotic response, and more likely to smooth the transition from dependency on the computer to doing something a little more productive.

Of course - this also depends upon the age-group. My younger brother would be handled completely differently from a 15-16-year old. The 15-16 year old is much more likely to try and throw around their weight. You generally solve this by throwing them through a wall. I stopped being so belligerent when my dad took me to the floor a couple times - some more stubborn people would need to be projected through a wall before they got the idea, though.

reply to post by PrimePorkchop


Hey i don't think this is the fault of the games it is defiantly a problem with the users i myself play games and the only downside is time lost that could have been better allocated also an increase in cognitive ability (can be a blessing and a curse)

Just because someone gets drunk and kills some one doesn't mean you can sue the manufacturer for providing you the product, because it was your poor decisions that caused you to act this way either using said substance or becoming emotionally addicted to a product or even acting dishonorably under the influence of drug or game (those new to game playing will experience a type of hallucination after playing a game for extended period of time where the game will still be playing in there minds even visually when closing ones eyes)

Game playing especially reaction/problem solving based games use an incredible amount of brain power that is why new gamers have trouble sleeping after extended game play, there mind is literally buzzing with activity

Games are definitely a good thing, but as all things must be used in moderation

An addiction does not cause the problem it is the poor judgement/week mind of the individual that is in question

This not all directed at you just wanted to clear this up

reply to post by ldyserenity


kill the computer and then give him a hug.

reply to post by Wyn Hawks


We only really exist in the mind of others our whole identity is based on how we intemperate how others perceive us

reply to post by ldyserenity

Originally posted by ldyserenity
reply to post by Freedom_is_Slavery

 

Seriously, I am with you on this one...I am terrified of trying to get my son off his L.O.L and WoW and Runescape games...truly terrified...is there a hotline?

If you don't mind me asking how old is your son?

Originally posted by PrimePorkchop
and here we go.

blame the video games. It's the video games fault.

There's 11 million + subscribers that play a game called World of Warcraft, and one lady goes whacko, kills her child, and presto....WoW is evil.

Society needs intellectually cleansed.

How about, instead, we call this what it is: A psychotic woman had a child when she never should have been allowed to. Nobody failed her. Nobody failed the child (except his mother and father) and the damned video game had NOTHING to do with it.

Somewhere in the last 40 to 50 years, we as a species have found a way to place all of our faults on other people, instead of being responsible and intelligent and accepting responsibility for our own actions.

"It's not my fault i strangled my child! I was obsessed with the +6 sword of might & vanquishing!!! Sue Blizzard!!!!!"

You didn't know what the most common thing is on internet forums?? It's taking the exception and using that to define the rule purely for propaganda purposes.