Posts Tagged ‘internet’

In an ironic twist of reality a South Korean couple was arrested for starving their child after spending long hours on the internet raising a virtual baby together. The couple allegedly neglected their prematurely born three month old daughter, feeding her just once in between 12-hour-long periods at an internet cafe. “The couple seemed to have lost their will to live a normal life, because they didn’t have jobs and gave birth to a premature baby,” said Chung Jin-won, a Korean police officer. The couple was raising a virtual child in a popular online Korean role-playing game. “Online game addiction can blur the line between reality and the virtual world. It seems that taking care of their on-line game character erased any sense of guilt they may have had for neglecting their daughter,” said Professor Kwak Dae-kyung of Seoul’s Dongguk University. [via CNN.com]

Share your comments here.

Tweet This Share on Facebook

Approximately 10% of all adolescents in grades 7 through 9 are victims of internet bullying, also known as cyberbullying. “Cyberbullying occurs when new technologies such as computers and mobile phones are used to harass or bully somebody. The perpetrators often use SMS, e-mail, chat rooms and Facebook to spread their message,” says Ann Frisen, Professor of Psychology at the University of Gothenburg and a part of an EU network of researchers studying the phenomenon. Although cyberbullying doesn’t confer any direct physical harm, it can be more emotionally and mentally damaging because the victims have little refuge. Cyberbullying can occur during and after school hours, and the harassment can spread across the internet very quickly. Research shows that the perpetrator is almost always from the same school as the victim, and can be smaller or younger than the victim since cyberbullies are able to act anonymously. So as childhood moves further into cyberspace, so must parenthood. Parents, and authority figures alike, should be aware of cyberbullying in order to successfully confront this rising trend. [via Medical News Today]

Share your comments here.

Tweet This Share on Facebook

Research presented this week at the Neuroscience 2009 meeting in Chicago revealed an interesting side effect of internet use on older brains. Researchers from University of California, Los Angeles found that frequent internet use among the elderly – even those who only recently started using the web – increased brain functioning beyond their baseline. By comparing novice users to seasoned internet veterans the researchers found that even after just one week of using the internet, the novice users’ brains showed activity in areas important for working memory and decision making – activity that wasn’t apparent on brain scans prior to engagement with the web. [via Medical News Today]

Share your comments here.

Tweet This Share on Facebook