hankyoreh

Parents addicted to Internet gaming neglected their child, which later starved to death.

A married couple, a husband surnamed Kim, 41, and a wife also surnamed Kim, 25, met over the internet through chatting, were married, and had a daughter in Yangju City, Gyeonggi Province, June 2, 2009. The baby was in good health for her first three months when she was taken care of by the grandmother and grandfather.

However, after the parents moved to Suwon City, Gyeonggi Province, her health deteriorated because her parents were unable to care for her because of their addiction to Internet gaming. The father and mother played games online for six to twelve hours each day respectively at a PC gaming room.

While they were away from home, the baby cried all day in her nursery from hunger, but no one was around to give her milk. Typical babies are given milk an average of ten times per day, but she was received milk only once or twice per day. The baby died on Sept. 24 of last year prior to her parents’ return home from the PC gaming room.

The parents informed the police of her death and arranged her funeral. They told the police, “We found she had passed away when we woke up in the morning.” The police, however, were suspicious of their explanation because the child was so emaciated and requested an autopsy report from the National Scientific, Criminal and Investigation Laboratory (NSCIL). One month later, the NSCIL reported the results of the autopsy and said, “She appears to have starved to death because she was not fed for such a long period of time.”

The police attempted to arrest the parents, but they had disappeared after the baby’s funeral. The police finally found and arrested them on March 2. The parents said, “Due to our sense of guilt, we have not been to a PC gaming room over these five months.”

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