Credits:
Directed by Valerie Veatch
Produced by David Foox, Dong Hyun Kim , Daniel B. Levin
Cinematography by Daniel B. Levin
Sundance Film Festival 2014
Official Website
LOVE CHILD 사이버 사랑 (2014) is a documentary film about Internet policy development. Centered in South Korea - the world's most wired nation - LOVE CHILD follows the story of the first case where "Internet addiction" was cited as a mental illness defense and looks at today's Korean gaming culture in search of harmony in an increasingly immersive media environment, where virtual is the new reality.
In 2010, a South Korean baby named Sarang died of malnutrition. The death of a child is always horrific, but the circumstances leading up to this one were even more shocking: Sarang died because her parents were playing games online. Ordinarily, this would be a clear case of negligence, but Love Child takes a different approach by looking at what led to the parents’ gaming addiction and how their child became a secondary concern. The film then expands from this tragedy to examine the way that South Korea’s place as the world leader of Internet infrastructure has adversely affected its communal society.