A friend has pointed me to an ABC item on the latest alarums in South Korea - land of fibre to the toaster and cybercafes - regarding 'internet addiction'.
The ABC reports that the South Korean government "estimates the country has about 2 million internet addicts" and that "New measures are being introduced ... seeking to combat the problem of internet addiction".
Those measures supposedly follow the trial of a couple for "negligent homicide" - "their three-month old daughter died of malnutrition, reportedly because they were too busy raising a virtual child in an online game".
The two million "addicts" are part of S Korea's population of around 48 million people and are presented as "almost 9 per cent of the country's total number of web users".
The report doesn't offer details that would be useful in assessing what happened.
Was the death similar to Australian parents leaving kids (or pets) in a locked car on a hot day. Did they stay away from home from days on end? Simply dislike the child, ignore it and then reach for 'internet addiction' (so much more resonant that pachinko or television addiction or cinema addiction) as a defence or basis for lenient sentencing?
How addicted does an internet user need to be before culpability disappears? Is it more profound than alcoholism or drug addiction? Or just more convenient as a topic of biopolitics? Moral panic?
