SEOUL, South Korea — A South Korean couple addicted to an Internet game about raising a virtual child were arrested for neglecting their real 3-month-old daughter and letting her starve to death, news reports said.
The couple spent between four and six hours every day at Internet cafes in Suwon, a city just south of Seoul, and bottle-fed their baby only once a day, the Yonhap news agency and other South Korean media reported, citing police.
The couple found their baby dead on Sept. 24 when they returned home after playing online games at a nearby Internet cafe all night, Yonhap reported.
The 41-year-old father and his 25-year-old wife, both jobless, went into hiding at a relative's home north of Seoul after a police autopsy found the baby died because of a long period of malnutrition, the report said. Police arrested the couple on Wednesday, it said.
“I'm sorry to my daughter and hope she doesn't get sick in heaven,” the father was quoted as saying by Yonhap.
News reports said the girl was born prematurely, weighing 5 pounds (2.25 kilograms), and had spent one month in an incubator.
The couple, who met each other through an Internet chat site, was reportedly obsessed with a role-playing game called “Prius Online” in which they nurtured a virtual girl dubbed “Anima.”
Calls to the Suwon police team handling the case rang unanswered Saturday..
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An Internet-game craze has swept across the nation of South Korea. Some players have died after playing computer games for days-on-end without getting out of their seats to use the bathroom, to eat or to sleep. Others have lost their jobs by continuously playing the game 'Warcraft,' instead of fulfilling the responsibilities of their jobs. Computer rooms all over South Korea are filled to capacity, 24/7. But, now innocent infants have been vicitimized by the 'virtual-game addiction.'
The Houston Chronicle reports that, "a South Korean couple addicted to an Internet game about raising a virtual child were arrested for neglecting their real 3-month-old daughter and letting her starve to death, news reports said.
Excuse me, but this is foolish. South Korean parents are playing a game about raising a 'virtual' infant, and it doesn't enter their minds that they too have a real baby who needs to be fed, bathed and properly taken care of.
Sadly, the judicial system is weak and too accomodating to criminals in South Korea. The accused parents stand a good chance of not serving any prison-time if they are convicted of killing a 'real' baby. In similar cases, some parents, who killed their children through woeful neglect, were only forced to serve one-to-three years in prison after being judged guilty for their crimes.
According to the Chronicle, "the couple spent between four and six hours a day at Internet cafes in Suwon, a city just south of Seoul, and bottle-fed their baby only once a day, the Yonhap news agency, and other South Korean media reported, citing sources."
On Sept. 24, the married couple found their baby dead, when they returned to their residence after playing the so-called 'virtual' baby game at a nearby Internet cafe all night, as disclosed by Yonhap.
