A father who caught his young son playing video games on his phone at 1 am on a school night punished him by making him play on his phone until he could play no more.

Too much of a good thing becomes harmful or bothersome over a large period of time, and one Chinese boy from Shenzen found this out the hard way a couple of days ago, when his father caught him playing video games on his phone after midnight, despite knowing he had to get up for school the next morning. The parent told the Metropolis Times that he was furious when he found his son playing on his phone when he should have been sound asleep, but he didn’t know how to react at first. He wanted to teach the boy a lesson he wouldn’t easily forget, so instead of scolding the boy he just told him that he could play on his phone instead of sleeping, adding that he could even take a day off from school so he could play some more.

Photo: Pandhuya Niking/Unsplash

The young boy reportedly enjoyed his unusual punishment quite a bit at first, continuing to play on his phone under his father’s supervision all through the night until about 7 am. That’s when the drowsiness started settling in, but when the kid tried putting the phone down and going to bed, his father let him know that he had also taken a day off from work to make sure that his son gets as much video game time as possible, with no sleep.

The dad said that the boy fell asleep with the phone in his hands multiple times, and that he had to shake him back to consciousness, despite his protests. At around 6:30 in the evening, after around 17 hours of gaming, the boy pleaded with his father to let him sleep, promising that he would never again play on his phone behind his parents’ backs. He even agreed to put his promise in writing, to make it official.

The video posted by the dad on Weibo on March 8th sparked a heated debate around several issues, like video game addiction in young kids, and the way it was handled in this particular case. Some applauded the father for thinking outside the box and making the boy sick of his favorite pastime, while others criticized him for forcing him to stay awake for so long at an age when his brain is still developing. For his part, the man clarified that he doesn’t recommend anyone else try this method with their kids.

Interestingly, this method of punishing kids by making them do the things they love until they become unbearable is apparently becoming popular in China. Late last year, we wrote about a couple who made their child watch TV until he could no longer stay awake, after catching him doing it instead of sleeping.