Chinese Couple sell their Kids for Video Game Fix

A report from a Chinese newspaper, the Sanxiang City News, states that a couple, Li Lin and Li Juan, sold their three children in order to get money to fund their Internet video game addiction.

The couple reportedly first met in 2007 at, of all places, an Internet cafe. Their first child, a boy, was born a year later. Although the couple did not (immediately) sell him, they did leave him at home just a few days after his birth. They did so in order to travel 30 km (about 18.6 miles) to an Internet cafe to play video games.

In 2009, the couple had their second child, a girl. They decided to sell her in order to fund their apparently burgeoning Internet video game obsession. It is no secret that, to families, girls are less desired in China, so that could explain why they sold her first, rather than the boy. That could also indicate why they only received about $466 from the "buyer."

That said, the family soon decided to sell their firstborn, as well. The fact that he was male may have contributed to the price increase; the report stated that that couple sold the boy for 10 times as much, or $4,660. Still later, they had another child, and this one was also a boy. This one, too, was sold for $4,660 or 30,000 yuan.

The crimes were discovered when the couple was turned in by Li Lin's mother. Reportedly, the couple was not aware that selling their children was a crime. When asked if they missed their children, the couple responded as follows: "We don't want to raise them; we just wanted to sell them for some money."

Source: Sanxiang City News