Internet mum guilty of neglect

An American woman accused of letting her three children live in squalor while she spent up to 12 hours a day on the Internet was put on probation yesterday and ordered to take parenting classes.

Sandra Hacker, who pleaded guilty to child endangering, was arrested on 14 June in an apartment that police officers said was strewn with debris, with children's handprints in faeces on the walls, while the area around the computer was clean.