Online addiction no game, experts warn
Stress over FarmVille led to a child's death, investigators say.
Posted: October 28, 2010 - 11:00pm
On a message board for online gaming addicts, the story of a young Jacksonville mother who admitted to killing her baby after he interrupted her computer game drew horror, skepticism, and in some cases, understanding.
"It is exactly like a drug addiction," one reader said. "Try interrupting a meth addict right before he/she is about to get high."
Alexandra Tobias, 22, is facing a possible life sentence after pleading guilty to second-degree murder in the January death of her 3-month-old son, Dylan Lee Edmondson.
Tobias told investigators her son was crying and interrupting her game of FarmVille, a hugely popular social networking game popularized through Facebook. She admitted shaking him, and then smoking a cigarette to regain her composure. When she returned, she told police, the baby was crying and she shook him again and he hit his head.
Read the full article by Kate Howard at the Florida Times-Union
