The death is the latest of several cases related to computer game addiction in one of the world’s most wired societies.<\/p>\n
Kim, 27, played online games for about 10 hours a day, police said, adding her neighbours described her house as “like a trash site” where her two children were left crying for hours.<\/p>\n
Police in the midwestern city of Cheonan said Kim, who also has a one-year-old son, beat the three-year-old and strangled him after he disturbed her by urinating on the floor and crying.<\/p>\n
“She said she was so mad at him because she was about to take some rest after playing online games for four hours in the morning,” a city police spokesman told AFP, describing the woman as addicted to game-playing.<\/p>\n
Kim left the boy’s body in the house for three days and her in-laws reported the death to police.<\/p>\n
She mostly played online card games and those involving the raising of virtual pets, the spokesman said, adding she had no history of mental disorder.<\/p>\n
The government estimates the number of web addicts at about two million in a nation of about 50 million. From next year, it will offer free software to people at risk, to limit the time they spend on the web.<\/p>\n
Last month a 15-year-old boy committed suicide after killing his mother for scolding him over excessive playing of computer games.<\/p>\n
In May a 41-year-old man was sentenced to two years in jail after he and his wife left their baby daughter to die of malnutrition while raising a “virtual child” on the Internet.<\/p>\n
In February, a 32-year-old man died after reportedly playing games for five days with few breaks.<\/p>\n