Original URL: https://www.theregister.com/2013/01/07/chinese_man_assassinates_son_online/
Dad hires online assassins to slay game-obsessed son
Shoot-son-up strategy designed to turn youth off war games
Posted in Bootnotes, 7th January 2013 04:49 GMT
A Chinese Dad has come up with a unique way of persuading his game-addicted son to turn engage with the real world: hiring gaming pros to destroy his morale by hunting him down online.
The frustrated father had apparently seen his 23-year-old offspring become obsessed with online games to the point that he had no interest in trying to find a job, according to Chinese media reports picked up by Livedoor and RocketNews24.
The pallid youth, who had become rather adept at his chosen profession of sitting at home playing war games, then discovered something strange was happening every time he logged on – he’d be taken out immediately by another player.
After this happened several times the boy apparently contacted his assailant in-game to ask what was going on.
Only then was the Jerry Springer-style pay-off revealed to him – it was his own father that had hired a series of hit men to destroy the boy’s love of gaming.
The two did in the end reconcile their differences in the real world, although it remains to be seen whether the Dad’s extreme course of action had the desired effect.
Either way, the son can probably be thankful he wasn’t bundled off to one of China’s notorious online addiction treatment centres instead.
China was one of the first countries in the world to recognise internet addiction as a psychological illness, but the boot camp-style centres set up to treat sufferers have a reputation for being pretty unpleasant places to be.
Although physical violence was banned as a treatment back in 2009, one 15-year-old boy was killed and another hospitalised that year as a result of “therapeutic” beatings.
The instructors responsible were banged up for 10 years and last year it was revealed that any instructors who use physical violence would have their licenses revoked.®