Phat lewts omg!

[Aslanna]

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jh ... ers115.xml

Couple play computer games as children starve
By Tom Leonard in New York, Sunday Telegraph

An American couple who authorities say were so obsessed with playing games on the internet that they left their babies to starve have pleaded guilty to child neglect.

The children of Michael and Iana Straw, a 22-month-old boy and an 11-month-old girl, were severely malnourished and close to death last month when doctors examined them after social workers took them to a hospital in Reno, Nevada.

Police said hospital staff had to shave the head of the girl because her hair was matted with cat urine. She weighed just 10 lbs and was also suffering from a mouth infection, dry skin and severe dehydration. Her brother had to be treated for starvation and a genital infection, while his lack of muscle development caused him difficulty in walking.

Both children are doing well and gaining weight in foster care, said Kelli Ann Viloria, a public prosecutor.

Michael Straw, 25, and Iana Straw, 23, pleaded guilty to two counts each of child neglect. Each faces a maximum 12-year prison sentence. Prosecutors said the Reno couple were too distracted by online video games, mainly the fantasy role-playing Dungeons & Dragons series, to give their children proper care.

“They had food, they just chose not to give it to their kids because they were too busy playing video games,” said Ms Viloria.

Straw is an unemployed cashier and his wife worked for a temporary staffing agency doing warehouse work. After inheriting $50,000 (£25,000), he spent the money on computer equipment and a large plasma screen television.

Last month, experts at an American Medical Association meeting backed away from a proposal to designate video game addiction as a mental disorder, saying it had to be studied further. Some said the issue is like alcoholism, while others said there was no concrete evidence it is a psychological disease.

Patrick Killen, spokesman for Nevada Child Abuse Prevention, said video game addiction’s correlation to child abuse is “a new spin on an old problem”. In 2005, a Korean couple were accused of letting their four-month-old baby die while they went to play World of Warcraft, the world’s most popular online adventure game, at a local internet cafe.

Pretty sad when people can't take the 20 minutes out of their loot farming day to feed their children.

[Marbus]

I read that today and found it very very sad...

[cadalano]

if it weren't for video games, these two would be upstanding parents and citizens.

[Winnow]

If they played an online game with less reliable servers those babies would be healthy. Rappelz keeps the home life happy with plenty of down time!

[Dregor Thule]

if it weren't for video games, these two would be upstanding parents and citizens.

Zing

[Nick]

Checking her myspace yields unsurprising results.

http://www.myspace.com/ikstraw

Courtesy of Somethingawful:

The kids obviously should have leveled up their foraging skill.

[Kaldaur]

Sick. Her myspace talked about how she loved her kids and she loved to cook.
0/2!!!

[Sabek]

I call shenanigans. The article I read said they were playing DDO. There isn't enough content in DDO to let it get that bad.

[Sylvus]

I call shenanigans. The article I read said they were playing DDO. There isn't enough content in DDO to let it get that bad.

I thought the exact same thing. How can a game that held my interest for all of about 6 hours be the same game that allows people to forget they have children.

[Ashur]

It was fun in beta when Feather Fall was broken and you had essentially low gravity super jump powers, especially since MOBs could only path to you when you were on the ground.

As for child neglect to play Video Games, get real. I quit WoW because I had a baby who needed me, any parent should be able to make that choice in a heartbeat.

[Gzette]

the last comment on the myspace is awesome from her sister, maybe an in-law, her #1 friend says "You're dead to me"

[miir]

The pics of the kids on her myspace are kinda creepy.
They look so bony and emaciated.
Babies are supposed to be chubby and pudgy.

[Zaelath]

the last comment on the myspace is awesome from her sister, maybe an in-law, her #1 friend says "You're dead to me"

I thought it was more telling she couldn't spell "disgust" close enough for the spell check to get it right.

[Winnow]

The pics of the kids on her myspace are kinda creepy.
They look so bony and emaciated.
Babies are supposed to be chubby and pudgy.

I can confirm that my parents were not addicted to online games:



Cheeks: nice and chubby...and I want my bleach blond California hair back! I could pass for a Hitler Youth back then but nowadays I'd be kicked out of the Aryan club for sure.

This concludes my kid picture section. My folks are scanning old slides so I'm getting a new batch of memories every few days in my email.

Rappelz servers are down again for weekly maintenance which ends up lasting the entire night so my kids would be fed at least once a week minimum.

[miir]

What the fuck happened to you, Winnow?

[Dregor Thule]

What the fuck happened to you, Winnow?

He went to live in America