New measures are being introduced in South Korea seeking to combat the problem of internet addiction.
The move follows the trial of a couple for negligent homicide. Their three-month old daughter died of malnutrition, allegedly because they were too busy raising a virtual child in a Second-Life-style game online known as Prius.
Kim Yoo-chul, 41, and Choi Mi-sun, 25, would feed their three-month-old baby only when not at 12-hour-online sessions in a local internet café. The pair were obsessed with raising their internet child, called Anima, resulting in the neglect of their unnamed real daughter.
After one such session in September the couple found their daughter dead and called police. An autopsy found the baby died from prolonged malnutrition.
"The couple seemed to have lost their will to live a normal life because they didn't have jobs and gave birth to a premature baby," Chung Jin-Won, a police officer, told Korean press.
"They indulged themselves in the online game of raising a virtual character so as to escape from reality, which led to the death of their real baby."...
