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Just when you think it can't get any worse.
This is horrific.
Internet-Obsessed Couple Let Kids Starve
Posted: 2007-07-15 19:54:48
RENO, Nev. (July 15) - A couple who authorities say were so obsessed with the Internet and video games that they left their babies starving and suffering other health problems have pleaded guilty to child neglect.
The children of Michael and Iana Straw, a boy age 22 months and a girl age 11 months, were severely malnourished and near death last month when doctors saw them after social workers took them to a hospital, authorities said. Both children are doing well and gaining weight in foster care, prosecutor Kelli Ann Viloria told the Reno Gazette-Journal.
Michael Straw, 25, and Iana Straw, 23, pleaded guilty Friday to two counts each of child neglect. Each faces a maximum 12-year prison sentence.
Viloria 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," Viloria told the Reno Gazette-Journal.
Police said hospital staff had to shave the head of the girl because her hair was matted with cat urine. The 10-pound girl also had a mouth infection, dry skin and severe dehydration.
Her brother had to be treated for starvation and a genital infection. His lack of muscle development caused him difficulty in walking, investigators said.
The Straws have been given public defenders. Jeremy Bosler, head of the county public defender's office, declined to comment to The Associated Press on Saturday.
Michael Straw is an unemployed cashier, and his wife worked for a temporary staffing agency doing warehouse work, according to court records. He received a $50,000 inheritance that he spent on computer equipment and a large plasma television, authorities said.
While child abuse because of drug addiction is common, abuse rooted in video game addiction is rare, Viloria said.
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's 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."
"As we become more technologically advanced, there's more distractions," Killen said. "It's easy for someone to get addicted to something and neglect their children. Whether it's video games or meth, it's a serious issue, and (we) need to become more aware of it."
http://news.aol.com/story/_a/interne...00010000000001
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Cat urine?
Just when you think it can't get any worse.
This is horrific.
"He received a $50,000 inheritance that he spent on computer equipment and a large plasma television, authorities said."
LMAO. Kill him, please.
What the ?
They better get the maximum sentence.
And they should force them to be nutured. They don't deserve to be able to have more kids.
If they couldn't take a minute to feed the kids...then how did they take a minute to eat themselves?
i thought for a second you meant the kinds should be forced to be nurtured. i'm really surprised there aren't more cases like this, especially with mmorpg players.
If they forget to feed them while playing Dungeons and Dragons, imagine what will happen to them once Halo 3 comes out.
people don't get as obsessed with FPS' as they do with mmorpgs.If they forget to feed them while playing Dungeons and Dragons, imagine what will happen to them once Halo 3 comes out.
english?
are u the parents?
Damn, now I don't feel so bad for making Little ASF get her own sangwich for lunch the other day because I was in the middle of beating the field by 26 seconds at Martinsville in NASCAR '07 on my PS2.
12 years is the maximum sentence?
lets see the kids were 11 months apart, I'm sure they took the time to each other yet with the kids being that close in age. When did they eat, bathe, or sleep?
In my book 12 years aint for what they did.
Im addicted to videogames but not mmorpg....right now any free time i have is spent on the game the darkness. i havent eaten tonight yet but i think im goin to play a little first b4 i make hamburger helper
MMORPG = massive multiplayer online role playing game. for example, people were selling their EverQuest accounts online on ebay in 2000 for thousands of dollars.
I ing hate MMORPGs dude...they're so ing lame and stupid. I used to have a friend who would ing plan Runescape non-stop whenever I'd be at his house and . Now that spends all his time sleeping or playing WoW.
But, FPS = win.
i don't really care to chop wood in a forest online for hours myself, but you can't really deny people get trapped in MMORPGS much worse than with FPS's.
I agree. Except though that there are people out there like FPS Doug...
People get trapped in FPSes too. Compe ive gaming is such a joke, people spend all day playing, they don't even do it for fun, it just becomes a monotonous chore.
I used to play MMOs, but it ends up getting so boring, same thing over and over. The only good thing is that since it becomes such a huge time sink you can sell items and characters for a pretty big chunk of cash. My WoW stuff was worth $600, FFXI money $10 per million gil.
I don't know how you let someone starve while playing, games aren't THAT fun. Killing giant spiders for 14 hours a day? Anyone remember that one guy that played EQ and was found dead at his PC? Another guy pulled a homicide-suicide over EQ too. The devs of the game even put in a thing where you can order pizza hut from the game.
Pretty sad.
Pizza Hut? Damn that is tooooooooooo sad.
Quit WoW. Waiting for Huxley and Conan.
FPS games are good, too. Havent liked a single one since SoF2 though. Halo blows.
the total amount of neglect hat has to go into your kids being so starved they are near death and have CAT URINE CAKED IN THIER HEADS!!!!!?????? omg.
not feeding, not batheing, not holding, not talking too, not reading to, not teaching, not playing with, prob, not changing diapers, OMG... I cannot even imagine the complete and utter lonely those children have been thru.
12yrs max is not nearly enough IMO. sterilized and 20yrs should do it.
BLASPHEMY!
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