Chinese Boy Watched Too Much TV. What His Parents Did Sparks Debate On Internet

The incident has triggered a fierce debate over parenting, and social media users have termed the punishment as ''too harsh''.

Parents discipline their children and teach them important life values in a variety of ways. However, one Chinese couple went to extremes to teach their kid a lesson. To punish their eight-year-old son for watching too much television, the tough-love couple forced the kid to watch television all night, South China Morning Post reported.  

According to the outlet, the eight-year-old boy, from Hunan Province in central China, was left at home while his parents went out, and was asked to finish his homework and go to bed by 8.30 pm. But when they returned, they found their son watching TV, and hadn't finished his homework. The boy went to bed once his parents came home. 

Infuriated at the fact that he didn't listen to them, the boy's mother dragged him back to the living room and turned on the TV, and forced him to watch it all night. The couple even took turns to keep a watch on the child so they could force him to stay awake. Initially, the child was unbothered and ate snacks, but he soon started getting tired and was unable to sit and watch. He struggled to stay awake and even cried and pleaded with his mother to be allowed to sleep, but to no avail. 

A CCTV footage of the incident which went viral on social media websites in China shows the boy falling asleep on the couch, only to be nudged awake by his mother or father and forced to watch more television. He was not allowed to sleep until 5 am, the report said.