Facebook, Cafe World, and Addiction...

This is a truly sad story. A mother, Shannon Johnson, in Colorado has admitted to police that she was busy playing Cafe World on Facebook, checking out her news feed, and sharing a few online videos while her one-year-old son was drowning in the bath.

According to Johnson's confession, her son was in the bath for a total of ten minutes, and she checked on him once. Then, when she did not hear any sounds coming from the bathroom she thought she better check again. When she did, she found her son with his face submerged. After that the confession to police gets a little weird. When the police asked her why she would leave her one-year-old in the bath by himself, she reportedly said she:

"didn't want him to be known as a mama's boy."

On a personal level, I find it hard to comprehend. Perhaps I am over-protective or something, but there is no way that Will, even at two-years-old, stays in the bath by himself while I go off to check my email or make a cup of tea or whatever.

Then again, maybe this story says something about the "dangers" of a technology addiction, in this case to Facebook and Cafe World. Just like any other addiction, it has a way of messing with one's priorities and skewing the understanding of what is important.

When one thinks of internet game addictions you normally think of children spending hours or days non-stop on games like "World of Warcraft" (or whatever it is that is popular now). However, it would seem that it is not only children that suffer from this.

In South Korea a couple was found guilty of starving their baby to death. What was truly bizarre in that case was that the couple were raising a virtual child in a video game and doing a reasonable job at it.

I wonder if this is going to become an increasing more acute and severe problem in the future? And, assuming that it is, I wonder how governments are going to deal with internet addiction? Legislation? Counselling?

The mind boggles.

Video Games and Child Behaviour

Anyone looking for an in-depth analysis of the relationship between video games and child behaviour will be sorely disappointed in this post. Nevertheless, there is a connection.

In a news story out of Wicomico Church, Virginia in the good ol' US of A, a six-year-old who was so keen to get to school that when he missed the school bus he figured he would grab the keys to the family car and drive himself to school. This decision did not pan out as he was hoping as he did not make it to school crashing after some six miles and still at least a mile and a half short of school.

When pressed by the local police about where he learned to drive the child admitted that all of his driving experience can from playing "Grand Theft Auto" and "Monster Truck Jam" video games. The fact that he managed to drive six miles, negotiate a few turns, and pass a couple of cars before crashing seems to suggest that these video games are pretty real in terms of the reality portrayed.

Unfortunately, for the kid he is now in protective custody as both his parents have been charged with child endangerment. Child endangerment would suggest that there is more to this story than just a mother falling asleep and leaving the car keys on the table. If not, then the moral of this story is that as a parent you must supervise your children 24 hours a day because if they do anything that endangers themselves then you are responsible as a parent.

The logic of this, taken to its conclusion, is that the parents of children are responsible for the children's actions. Simply, if your child steals then you as the parent must be punished. Similarly, if your kid decides to "borrow" your car keys and take the car for a spin then you are guilty of child endangerment.