Virtual Reality - Literal Stupidity

[houseisland]

BBC: S Korea child 'starves as parents raise virtual baby'


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It is my pure and virtuous heart that
gives me the strength of ten!

[Niclo Iste]

Maybe someone should have warned them that the digital baby will starve too once they go to jail for child abuse. Even if they were crappy parents maybe it would ahve been enough incentive to take care of or at least feed the real child more and thus it wouldn't have been a loss of life.

[El_Squid]

Although the virtual reality part is a new twist, it is a very old and all too common story. After nearly 20 years of working in a "mental hospital", most of them in Children and Adolescent Psych wards, it really does not surprise me at all. People take better care of their pets than they do their own children. In fact, animal abuse is often punished more harshly and more expeditiously than child abuse/neglect. Abused animals are rarely returned to the abusive owners. It is a very sad situation, with no easy answers.

Except in this case, where the neglect resulted in a child's death, the only question is how harsh a punishment. Death by starvation?

[houseisland]

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/8600517.stm


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It is my pure and virtuous heart that
gives me the strength of ten!

[slgrieb]

Texas Children's Protective Services agency has to be at the forefront of agencies that have abused their authority, but often they get it right. Working in public health, my wife sees lots of kids who have been removed from parental custody, mostly due to heavy Meth abuse by one or both parents. Often, these children are being raised by grandparents.

Like all 50 states, Texas has laws permitting grandparents to sue for visitation rights and even child custody; despite the wishes of the parents. Interestingly, the law supporting grandparent visitation rights has increasingly come under fire from a coalition of special interest groups who support the Texas Parental Rights Restoration Act.

I cite the Texas Home School Coalition because it is typical of arguments against the current laws in that it presents parents as the target of frequent suits by wealthy grandparents who disagree with the parents' decision to home school their children because of social issues. Religious beliefs aren't mentioned explicitly, though the inference is obvious. Personally, I don't see a lot of baseless suits: I think it is about grandparents concerned for their grandchildren's health and safety.

Similar legislation was introduced in the previous legislative session, and was defeated. However, our incumbent governor, Rick Perry, has explicitly endorsed the bill, and as Republicans increasingly court the shrinking party base, passage remains a real possibility. Michigan has already caved to right wing pressure.

[El_Squid]

The whole question is so tricky, as I have seen excellent examples to support both sides. The true question is whether the state's investigative agencies are really getting to the truth of the matter, or are they simply leaping to a conclusion based on prevailing popular opinion?

I think the latter is usually the case, as in my experience, case workers tend to have some rather strong built-in biases, and I have had to get up in their official faces, file grievances and dig up unpleasant facts, to get them to back off.