A young couple, from Dongguan, China, have reportedly sold all their three children for money needed to keep playing online games at Internet cafés.
According to Chinese newspaper Sangxiang City News, Li Lin and Li Juan, both under 21, first met back in 2007, in an Internet café. It was their obsession with online gaming that fueled their relationship, and a year later, the two welcomed their first baby. Actually, “welcomed” is a bit of an overstatement considering that just days after they brought him home, the couple left him alone and went to play video games at an Internet café 30 km away.
In 2009, the irresponsible couple had another child, a baby girl, whom they decided to sell in order to fund their online gaming obsession. They managed to get RMB 3,000 ($500) for her, which they spent in a matter of days. Having run out of cash they proceeded to sell their first born as well, this time for ten times as much, RMB 30,000 ($4,600). At this point they probably decided having kids could be pretty profitable so they had a third baby, a boy, that got them another RMB 30,000 ($4,600). They would have probably continued like this for years, if the boy’s mother hadn’t learned of their deeds and alerted the authorities.
Apparently, the two didn’t even know what they were doing was illegal, and when asked if they missed their three children, they shockingly answered “We don’t want to raise them, we just wanted to sell them for some money.”
via ABC News Radio
Great mother and father….
It seems to them that playing online game just like taking drug or drinking alcohol could be addicted. In past decades, online game in China is apparently developing with a abrupt speed. I had recently read about a article talking about how parents in China feel despairing help their children out of addiction to playing online game. They cut their finance, give hearty advise to them and encourage them taking course to relieve the pain brought by living without online game. All of mentioned method only get very little progress to their children. The children may be able not to think about online game in first few days. However, they finally put family, study and everything they concerned before out of their brain and just place their eyes on the monitor to control an unreal character through mouse to combat monster and build their dream house. Poor parents and poor children…
To be honest, I am quite addicted to playing tf2. It is a great game but seriously, these parents may be one of the dumbests I have ever heard. The reason I like tf2 is because pretty much every weapon has a pro and con, but you can make the con into a pro if used correctly. In a way, it is a strategy game in itself since you have to figure out ways to trick people, sneak up on ppl, use the right weapons, etc. To control my addiction to tf2, I will play other strategy games such as chess, stratego, and even pool. These parents really need to find something else that satisfies their needs.
I can only HOPE that these kids weren’t sold to child molesters or sold into sex slavery… no one seems to know where these kids are or who they ended up with, and that worries me greatly.
I could care less what happens to their gaming-addicted parents, as long as they’re justly punished…