Love Child (2014)

If you tell yourself that you don’t have an internet addiction and you can unplug anytime you want, chances are you’ve already got a problem. And it’s nothing new – 2014 doccie Love Child explores the troubling addiction, especially in Asia, where a couple were so addicted to an online game that they abandoned their baby and let her die of malnutrition.

Yip, you read that correctly – a set of new parents literally let their love for a videogame come before their baby’s needs. And they saw nothing wrong with it. That’s one of the topics that comes up in this 75-minute doccie by Valerie Veatch (director of 2012 doccie Me At The Zoo, which is also about the internet and social media).

The entire story might sound absurd, but this is the reality of online addiction. It’s no less damaging and destructive than a drug habit, explains Valerie herself: “The ruling in the trial shows how increasingly there is no distinct difference between virtual experiences and experiences to be had in the real world. We are living in a blended reality.”