Online Gaming cause of death for Chinese Boy
An online games addict died after playing for seven days in a row.
The 26-year-old, who weighed 150kg (23st 7lb), collapsed after spending ‘almost all’ of a week-long holiday on his PC.
His neighbours blamed the boredom of the holiday to mark Chinese New Year for turning youngsters into gaming addicts.
Xu Yan, a teacher in the north-eastern town of Jinzhou, said: ‘There are only two options: TV or computer. What else can I do in the holiday as all markets and cafeterias are shut down?’
China has allegedly seen an alarming rise in the number of young Internet addicts despite attempts to restrict minors from cyber cafes and limit online gaming.
About one in ten of the country’s 20 million Internet users aged under 18 is addicted, officials have claimed.
In 2005, a 28-year-old South Korean man collapsed and died after playing computer game Starcraft non-stop for 49 hours in an Internet cafe.
Three years earlier, an American mother unsuccessfully sued Nintendo, alleging her son suffered a fatal seizure playing a video game.
By Sun Tzu on 03-03-2007
