Nev. couple blame Internet for neglect

[Jujubie]

Nev. couple blame Internet for neglect Mon Jul 16, 8:09 AM ET

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."

[Yangsing]

The more you read the story, the sadder and funnier it gets.

Matted with cat urine.

[Angelsin]

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.

Sweet Jesus not dry skin!

Michael Straw is an unemployed cashier

This makes me want to put unemployed CFO on my resume to see if it'll give me that extra boost.

[MisterBob]

For a normal adult, dry skin isn't an issue, but for a baby it could cause some pretty serious problems.

[Devek]

Wasn't changing their diaper either.. the 22 month old boy's penis was infected because it was sitting in his own shit and urine for days at a time. He had trouble walking because no one would play with him.

Yet with their kids 11 months apart they clearly had time to fuck enough to have another child..

I always thought when it came to abuse and neglect cases the "proof should be in the pudding" or so to speak. These people need to go to prison IMHO, lets see how much time they can stay online there.

[Natallon]

ugh... why are people so stupid...

this is just going to add fuel to the argument that "video games are the spawn of the devil"

[Shuemue]

Cunts deserve ten years+ jail imo.

[Andarvi]

ugh... why are people so stupid...

this is just going to add fuel to the argument that "video games are the spawn of the devil"

[BRP]

Isn't Dungeon and Dragons Online "E-Z MODE"? Everything is instanced? Couldn't they have just changed diapers between instances?

[Kaylia]

Isn't Dungeon and Dragons Online "E-Z MODE"? Everything is instanced? Couldn't they have just changed diapers between instances?

A normal person could find time to change their kid diapper in any mmorpg >_>

[HAcoreRD]

The judge should over look this case and just fine them. People blame ANYTHING because they don't want to blame theirselves.

Be a fucking man and stand up to your blame, stop blaming games and the internet.

[Septimus]

And you know that the anti-game nut jobs are going to all over this case, as if they would have been any less neglectful without computers. They would have ignored their children while watching TV or reading books. (So we should preemptively ban those as well.)

[Octavious]

Be a fucking man and stand up to your blame, stop blaming games and the internet.

Everytime I read something like this and videogames/entertainment takes the hit, I always think of that saying 'You need a license to drive but not to have kids.' I mean seriously, like Sept said, these parents would have most likely neglected their kids in other ways like most parents do now, so we shouldn't blame 1 form of entertainment.


Oh, and that Sig is awesome...God Damnit we lost Clyde! *flips through playboy*

[Totien]

Isn't Dungeon and Dragons Online "E-Z MODE"? Everything is instanced? Couldn't they have just changed diapers between instances?

A normal person could find time to change their kid diapper in any mmorpg >_>

Yea everything except for things like vendors and trainers were instanced. Even then, the game wasn't even that good at all. :/ People like this should be shot.

[Cesaria]

Idiots like that will blame ANYTHING for their own inadequacies. Personally I'd like to see hanging brought back for people who put kids through that sort of crap but that's probably because I spend so much time at work picking up the pieces of people who can't fucking be bothered to actually look after the kids they spend so much time producing.

I'm sick to death of kids with no social skills because no one's ever played with them, speech problems because no one's ever spoken to them and the ever joyous kids with perfect American accents because they've been stuck in front of imported cartoons since the day they were born (and this is in the middle of the goddamn UK). Parents who won't buy their kids cheap as shit school uniform (like £3 for a couple of polo shirts) or god-forbid... get them to school at the right time instead of rolling in an hour late every day OR BLOODY TREAT THEM FOR HEADLICE AFTER MONTHS OF SCRATCHING (personal pet bugbear that one). Jeez the restrictions on how you can treat a freaking dog are more than those about how you can treat a child.

I swear the longer I spend working in education, the more intolerant I become of people like this. At this point in the UK, the bleeding-heart crew would come in and say the parents only did this because of inequality, poverty and that it wasn't their fault. Hell, they'd probably let the kids stay with the parents too and give them a free home computer and internet connection to improve the kids' education.

Just grrrrr.

[Charla]

Oh, and that Sig is awesome...God Damnit we lost Clyde! *flips through playboy*

You can't be the dwarf character I'm already the dwarf character!

Ah screw this, I'mma go play hello kitty island adventure.

[BRP]

Isn't Dungeon and Dragons Online "E-Z MODE"? Everything is instanced? Couldn't they have just changed diapers between instances?

A normal person could find time to change their kid diapper in any mmorpg >_>

Yeah, but that quite wasn't my point though. It's even more ridiculous to blame the game. That's like someone doing the same thing while playing Parchezzi.

[Xiona]

lol @ them putting MMOs and meth in the same sentence