China Treats Internet Addiction Very Seriously

eldavojohn writes "China has taken new extremes in preventing internet addiction in youths and is even offering boot camps to parents who want their child weaned from the electric teat. The article notes that 'no country has gone quite as far as China in embracing the theory that heavy Internet use should be defined as a mental disorder and mounting a public crusade against Internet addiction.' The article mentions the story of Sun Jiting who 'spends his days locked behind metal bars in this military-run installation, put there by his parents. The 17-year-old high school student is not allowed to communicate with friends back home, and his only companions are psychologists, nurses and other patients. Each morning at 6:30, he is jolted awake by a soldier in fatigues shouting, "This is for your own good!"' Sun found himself spending 15 hours or straight on the internet. Thanks to his parents' intervention and the treatment, he now has life mapped out until he's 84. "

Re:Just a thought

[idontgno]

Interesting. I was sceptical but you appear to be fundamentally right.

Per the South Carolina Constitution, Article VI [scstatehouse.net], Section 2:

No person who denies the existence of the Supreme Being shall hold any office under this Constitution.

Weird. I'm amazed this hasn't been successfully challenged in the US Supreme Court yet. (I can't claim to be amazed that it hasn't been amended from within the state yet; in many states of the U.S., you'd have a hard time getting together enough of the population to support an atheism- or polytheism-friendly or religiously neurtral platform.)

Boot camps for kids don't work

[ndogg]

I remember some places here in the US trying similar such boot camps for troubled teens, and to my knowledge they didn't work [reason.com].

Re:Just a thought

[oddfox]

The U.S. Constitution forbids quite a lot of things, including religious tests to hold office. However, these are routinely violated in state or local laws.

Article 19, section 1 of the Arkansas Constitution: Atheists disqualified from holding office or testifying as witness.

No person who denies the being of a God shall hold any office in the civil departments of this State, nor be competent to testify as a witness in any court.

There's many many more, and you can find them all here [godlessgeeks.com]. And people say that liberals have all these unconstitutional restrictions in place in order to keep God-fearing Christians from public office. Last time I checked, most elected representatives I read up on, especially Presidential candidates, identify themselves as Christians...

Disclaimer: Not that there's anything wrong with that...

Re:Human Rights Watch: Abuse of Psychiatry in Chin

[Anonymous Coward]

See? The US is completely different than China. We call "political dissidents, spiritual nonconformists, trade union activists, whistleblowers, and others" liberals, and we just call them evil - perhaps sent by Satan himself, and in league with Al Queda - and most definitely, not patriotic.

Re:Before we get all high and mighty

[Anonymous Coward]

In fact, some of these "schools" get around things like licensing and inspections by locating themselves out of the county. One interesting example is Tranquility Bay (http://www.tranquilitybay.org/ [tranquilitybay.org]) located in Jamaica. They also offer a handy kidnapping service that will shanghai your child in the middle of the night. It sounds absolutely horrendous (http://observer.guardian.co.uk/magazine/story/0,1 1913,987172,00.html [guardian.co.uk]). Bizarre forms of stress position torture, brain washing, different types of deprivation. Glad I'm not a minor anymore.