Chinese couple sells kids to play games

By Wesley Yin-Poole Published 25 July, 2011

Another troubling tale hits headlines.

A Chinese couple sold their three children for cash to play video games, according to a local report.

Sanxiang City News newspaper (translated by ABC News, via VideoGamer.com) said the parents, both under 21, sold their children for money to fund playing online games at internet cafes.

In 2009, Li Lin and Li Juan sold their second child, a baby girl, for less than $500. They reportedly spent the money shortly after.

They then sold their first child, a boy, for about $4600. They sold their third child, also a boy, for the same amount.

They were reported to the police when the man's mother found out what they had done. "We don't want to raise them, we just want to sell them for some money," they said. They claim they didn't know they were breaking the law.

The games played by the couple were not disclosed, or the type of games they were.

China has a troubled history with online gaming.

A year ago China's Ministry of Culture issued new regulations banning children from using virtual currency to buy items in games.

The new rules also included restrictions on "unwholesome and corrupting content" and kids' gaming time.

The controls are made possible by a requirement that online game players register with their real names.

Minors will be banned from buying or selling items with virtual currencies, although the purchase of "products or services" will be allowed.

Game companies will be required to develop "techniques" limiting children's gaming time in order to prevent addiction, an issue which has been in the headlines in China since a series of deaths among "internet-addicted youths" in 2009. But the techniques, or the amount of gaming time, aren't specified.

The Ministry also requires companies to develop means to keep children from playing "inappropriate games", forbidding online games from including content that involves pornography, cults, superstition, gambling and violence.

Picture of Wesley.

About Wesley Yin-Poole

Wesley is Eurogamer's news editor. He likes news, interviews, and more news. He also likes Street Fighter more than anyone can get him to shut up about it.

Read more articles from Wesley by visiting the Wesley Yin-Poole archive page.

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Comments (59) Latest comment 10 months ago

Comments for this article are now closed, but please feel free to continue chatting on the forum!

  • J0rdan_KZ #1 10 months ago

    May I be the first to say: What the fuck is wrong with some people?!

  • JoeGBallad #2 10 months ago

    This one is going to hurt.

    I feel really sorry for those poor children, they don't deserve a life like that.

  • Slipstream #3 10 months ago

    The children will be much better off without having these scumbags as parents anyway.

  • GuiltySpark #4 10 months ago

    If Activision keep raising their RRPs then I think I'm gonna have to start breeding.

  • Midgar777 #5 10 months ago

    I'm calling MMO tbh :p

  • arcam #6 10 months ago

    So they spent $9000 on online gaming? Seems unlikely, unless it's gambling, but I don't know much about Chinese MMOs. Seems more likely they just sold them for the money, some of which they happened to spend on games.

  • LazyDan #7 10 months ago

    The immediate question which came screaming into my head was:

    Who's buying kids? If the Police arrested them for selling their children, why aren't they off arresting whoever bought them? They can't be hard to find if two teenagers who spend their days playing MMOs could find them.

    This story seems a bit red-top to me, I've got my doubts as to how true it all is...

  • Bernkastel #8 10 months ago

    The games played by the couple were not disclosed, or the type of games they were.

    The world may never know.

    Then again, you did file this under MMO. This may very well be a vital clue.

  • TeeHee #9 10 months ago

    to be fair videogames are alot more fun than children.

    they're less expensive too.

  • P1GEONPOO #10 10 months ago

    The reason why is unimportant. Its the fact that they were willing to sell them in the first place thats totally sick/f***d up. Like people have said they will be better off without them. FREAKS.

  • leodeurl #11 10 months ago

    I thought it was not possible to have more than one child in China.

  • TruSmiles #12 10 months ago

    It seems a bit weird to me that they would have three kids when they're both under 21, especially as they obviously did not care for them at all. Were they just having kids to sell 'em, or did they just not care about their lives outside of a game?

  • IonOnion #13 10 months ago

    You know it could have been worst.

    There are plenty of stories like this, of parents and online gaming, where children end up being negected, beaten and even killed. This is better because the child ends up with people who really wants them.

  • arcam #14 10 months ago

    @LazyDan

    Unfortunately it's horrifyingly common: [link url=http://www.guardian.co.uk/theobserver/2007/sep/23/features.magazine77
    ]http://www.guardian.co.uk/theobserver/20...[/link]

    prospective parents must have a birth permit before conceiving, and while rural families are allowed a second child if their first is a girl, urban families must pay a fine for flouting the one-child rule. And if you haven't had an abortion to get rid of your female child (although it is now illegal, around 40m girls have been selectively aborted since the One Child Policy was instituted in 1979), how can you be sure to get a son? Sometimes the only choice seems to be to buy a stolen child, gender already determined.

    While China officially has a child abduction problem, the sad fact is many of those 'abductions' are sanctioned by the parents. Really I suspect this story doesn't have much to do with video games. It's just a sad reflection on the state of things in China.

  • 5h1nj1 #15 10 months ago

    There are people able to sell their children for money without any bigger trouble in China and you say: "China has a troubled history with online gaming"? WTF?
    Are you being serious here? Sounds like a joke this way. Couldn't the real trouble be that THEY CAN SELL THEIR CHILDREN FOR MONEY? Shouldn't someone kinda go after THAT? I'm stunned, really. Is this Fox News or something?

  • IonOnion #16 10 months ago

    @leodeurl

    The term "one-child policy" is based on a popular misconception that the birth control policy of the PRC requires all couples in mainland China to have no more than one child. In reality, though having one child has been promoted as ideal and the limit has been strongly enforced in urban areas, the actual implementation varies from location to location. In most rural areas, families are allowed to have two children, if the first child is female, or disabled. Second children are subject to birth spacing (usually 3 or 4 years). Additional children may result in fines. The families are required to pay economic penalties, and might be denied bonuses at their workplace.

  • spekkeh #17 10 months ago

    So unethical, a flagrant violation of the one-child law.

  • Retro_ #18 10 months ago

    Id happily pay $500 for that fit Chinese bird off the Apprentice...... ok, I'll get me coat !

  • CaptainQuint #19 10 months ago

    Won't somebody please think of the children?

    Nah, just get rid of 'em.

  • DAN.E.B #20 10 months ago

    Trade in at Game?

  • Flipper79 #21 10 months ago

    Madonna's got three new children then?

  • jablonski #22 10 months ago

    They sold the 1st one for $500???

    Bollocks. I bought their second for $4600 and have been proper ripped off

  • Silvergun-Blue #23 10 months ago

    @Retro_

    She probably wouldn't even get out of bed for £500. I agree with Suger, we'll be seeing more of her!
    But yeah she is tasty, seemed like a nice lass too. Unlike the total cunt-buckets they normally dig up for that show.

    But on topic, I'll expect the "games are evil" crowd to have a field day with this.

  • LazyDan #24 10 months ago

    Yeah, if you read the source article (http://msn.china.ynet.com/3.1/1107/21/59... - jankily translated from Chinese in Google Chrome,) it reveals a probable heavy amount of spin on this otherwise naturally disturbing story.

    The dodgy translation reads more as though the story went like this:

    - Boy meets girl
    - Boy meets girl the next day at an internet cafe and 'eat the forbidden fruit'
    - Boy quits job, girl drops out of school, they rent a place together and live the 'couple life' (eh? How does that work?)
    - Girl gets pregnant, wants an abortion - boy's mother refuses to let them, and they subsequently move back in with the parents.
    - Girl has baby boy, but both parents are more concerned with internet gaming than their kid and run away together multiple times to far away internet cafes, and are hauled back by the mother each time.
    - Girl keeps all baby knowledge secret from her parents, girl does odd jobs for money?
    - Girl gets pregnant again, has baby girl.
    - Boy and girl struggle to make ends meet, boy says as [their] daughter gave good conditions for little people, they could send her out in return for a 'compensation fee' of 3,000 yuan. Girl agrees, and it happens. The money is 'squandered'.
    - They agree to sell their second child, someone gets a referral fee from it.
    - Girl gives birth to another boy, and again agrees to sell him for 7,000 yuan
    - Boy's mum reports buy and girl to the police, saying her grandchildren are missing
    - Boy and girl are arrested, Police are dumbfounded that both of them admitted it, not thinking they'd done anything wrong.

    So yeah, nowhere in the source article does it say they specifically sold their kids for online money, it looks to be more a case of them being a pair of idiots who waste their lives at internet cafes, who had kids and sold them for money in general. Undoubtedly they're horrible, stupid and selfish people - and disturbingly it sounds like they sold their kids to paedophile rings, but the anti-gaming spin seems to have been added in translation. The Chinese use the term 'post 90s' for this generation of kids who waste their lives in internet cafes.

  • bobfish09 #25 10 months ago

    This is so sensationalised.

    They didn't want to raise the children, so instead of just giving them away for adoption, they sold them. Law broken.

    Bringing games into it, which is their hobby, is neither here nor there. The issue is they didn't want the children, not what they spent the money on.

  • Phishfood #26 10 months ago

    They were playing Hunter Blade, a complete ripoff from the Monster Hunter MMO. I hate that game.

  • Ikaros_O #27 10 months ago

    Finally, a decent use for children.

  • HornsDino #28 10 months ago

    Props to you LazyDan for actually doing some research on this story. Your lazy moniker is undeserved! What does that make the so-called news sites that regurgitate this propaganda unchecked?

  • sonicyoda #29 10 months ago

    You've got to worry when true storys like this come off like something out of Brasseye. Coincidentally, these people are a fucking joke.

  • rock27gr #30 10 months ago

    Cheers Dan, that sounds much more logical.

    So the mother stopped them having an abortion, and they ended up with an unwanted child at their teen years.

    Someone should have taught them about birth control methods.

  • onezeonx #31 10 months ago

    CEX offered my £3000 and a pspgo for my kids

    Not sure what to buy now!

  • bad09 #32 10 months ago

    Hmmm, I need a new gaming PC....

    / wonders what he'd get for mini bad09

  • MaFlippinHeadHurts #33 10 months ago

    I hope they truly get their arses kicked into next week for this - utter scumbags!

  • jablonski #34 10 months ago

    Cheers Dan.

    Lazy, sensationalist journalists take note!

  • bad09 #35 10 months ago

    "Now 3 unfortunates will most likely be worked to death in chinese sweathouses..."

    Well someone has to make Nike trainers and Primark clothing.

  • -cerberus- #36 10 months ago

    Is anybody interested in my dad's side of my family: they're all brainwashed Catholic assholes. PM me with your offer.

  • thiagots85 #37 10 months ago

    If a child break, can the new parents trade for a new one?

  • Ahskay #38 10 months ago

    Mmm they should've trained their children in gaming and have them farm for gold all day. It's the Chinese way after all. Crazy people.
    Edited by Ahskay at 25/07/11 @ 16:44

  • butler` #39 10 months ago

    Lazy, sensationalist journalists take note!

    WYP won't mind. He got 100+ fb shares. That's gotta be a KPI right there.

  • dickothe1st #40 10 months ago

    The Chinese are robots. Oblivious to how the world works, their immediate environment (you ever seen one cross a road without almost walking into moving traffic?) and unable to think without being told how to do it first. This story is hilarious.

  • cyber_nicco #41 10 months ago

    "May I be the first to say: What the fuck is wrong with some people?!"

    I think you mean countries, not people!

  • Discalceaterabbit #42 10 months ago

    Emily Pankhurst must b turning in her grave.

  • cheeky_BILLY #43 10 months ago

    They did not love them long time.

  • jetsetdemo #44 10 months ago

    @cheeky_BILLY

    Some piss has come out that is a perfect use of the phrase.

    Also I am pretty sure at lest one of my kids would sell me for games so I may have to sit on the fence with this one.

  • Anciegher #45 10 months ago

    People can truly be evil :(

  • gm914 #46 10 months ago

    Apparently this woman's vagina hasn't heard of Steam.

  • filipo #47 10 months ago

    I'd sell my kids for Skyrim.

  • cheeky_BILLY #48 10 months ago

    5years old. Makes a lot of unnecessary noise. Stops being cooperative when it feels like it. Heavy, ugly and cost you a lot of money. That's right kids and xbox360's are very similar.

  • bemaniac #49 10 months ago

    That's one hell of an expensive spectral tiger.

  • alcides #50 10 months ago

    Euro-FUCKING-tabloïd.net

  • pantherboy #51 10 months ago

    Can the single source of this story be trusted? I have my doubts, lots of propaganda to cut through, I need multiple sources.
    Edited by pantherboy at 25/07/11 @ 21:40

  • Maswor #52 10 months ago

    I'm Vietnamese and I've Known quite well about China. They hate girls and love boys. So they buy a boy if they don't have. Girls are raised to be whores. Alot of childrent from Vietnam were kidnaped and "exported" to China. Our Government has been trying to stop them but failed again and again
    Edited by Maswor at 26/07/11 @ 03:09

  • creepylizard #53 10 months ago

    Sold them to who? Science?

  • DAN.E.B #54 10 months ago

    ^^^^^ You are a fucking idiot!

    Its really hard to be proud to be english when theres soo many racist pricks like you around!

    /Ignore

  • mejoff #55 10 months ago

    Jesus fuck, the amount of racist shit in these comments is disgusting.

  • Fatestayjedi #56 10 months ago

    Wtf are you talking about,it's not the video game's fault!!Stop focusing on blaming video games and start to think what to do with the parents!

  • cheeky_BILLY #57 10 months ago

    Fuck you mogoeyons stay away from my shitty wall!

  • TackyCheeba #58 10 months ago

    Now thats just f*cked up!

    ...also @EnglishAndProud ..you sir/madam, make me ashamed to be English...what a giant COCK you are!

  • bemaniac #59 10 months ago

    EnglishAndProud you suck you know that where all virtual gold comes from! Have some fucking respect!