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. "

Sounds about right

[Anonymous Coward]

Old communism and new communism still have one thing in common: reeducation of deviants and defining any 'social' problem as a mental disorder that they can treat/imprison you for.

Just a thought

[andy314159pi]

Spending 15 hours on the internet at a time might be a normal reaction to living in an extremely oppressive society.

Tagged: excessive

[WillDraven]

Seriously, I understand how internet addiction can take over your life, but being put in a penal institution is not the answer. And mapping out your life until you're 84? You've just had something else take over your life instead. Not much of an improvement in my opinion.

I live in the Twin Cities...

[mikecardii]

And saw this article in the paper the other day. It caught my attention, and frankly, it disturbs me to my core. I won't deny that it's possible to become addicted to the internet, but the extremes to which some of this clinics go is very disturbing. I don't think that these kids should be treated like they're addicted to drugs.

Before we get all high and mighty

[Anonymous Coward]

This reminds me of the drug treatment programs where teens were incarcerated in the US. They were much more popular in the late 80s and early 90s. The one we had locally, "Straight, Inc." used to advertise on TV all the time. There were cases of kids getting caught with a joint once and being sent there, mixed in with hardcore addicts and becoming more addicted off stuff smuggled in. Either that, or they were just isolated and abused. These companies were scandalized and faded into the background, AFAIK they may still be there.

Re:Just a thought

[andreasg]

Living in an oppressive society doesn't prevent meaningful social relationships with other humans. While you might be able to discuss your hopes and thoughts on the society freely on the internet, I doubt that was what he used his 15 hours a day for. China is known to have a lot of problems with online gaming, for example the Chinese version of World of Warcraft limits the playing time each day.

Holy Fsck!

[Penguinisto]

Okay - I understand that sometimes a kid can get more than just a little involved with computers (Hell, I remember a period of time as an ADULT when I spent nearly every waking non-work hour online playing Quake or Counter-Strike), but like anyone, they get past it, they move on.

If it starts to be an actual detriment (not eating, not sleeping, etc), okay - I can see the need for intervention. Still, this one makes me queasy a bit.

Why? Well, what about the requirements to be declared "addicted"? Isn't there a danger that safeguards could be tossed, and it would eventually boil down to just someone else's subjective opinion? Hell of a way to be got rid of in a hurry by a disgruntled low-level gov't worker, a pissed-off friend, etc. Anywhere else on the planet okay - I could understand that there would be a due process. But in a country which still prosecutes (and I quote) "hooliganism" (which can mean whatever they want it to mean), and lock dissidents up for years on end? Sounds like just an updated and modernized excuse to shut up anyone who makes the gov't feel uncomfortable.

/P

Compulsive behavior is not bad--just the Internet?

[liam193]

Thanks to his parent's intervention and the treatment, he now has life mapped out until he's 84.

Okay, let me get this straight. "Thanks to his parent's intervention and the treatment, he now has [replaced one compulsive behavior for another]." The need to organize your life 50+ years into the future is not far from the compulsion to spend 15 hours a day on the Internet. In fact, I would maintain that it is potentially a more destructive behavior.

Re:Sounds about right

[Tackhead]

From TFA: > Each morning at 6:30, he is jolted awake by a soldier in fatigues shouting, "This is for your own good!"'

'Smith!' screamed the shrewish voice from the telescreen. '6079 Smith W.! Yes, you! Bend lower, please! You can do better than that. You're not trying. Lower, please! That's better, comrade. Now stand at ease, the whole squad, and watch me.'

> Thanks to his parents' intervention and the treatment, he now has life mapped out until he's 84.

But it was all right, everything was all right, the struggle was finished. He had won the victory over himself. He loved Big Brother.

And as long as I'm on an Orwell kick today, "the Slashdotters looked from TFA to the dystopian science fiction novel, and from the dystopian science fiction novel to TFA, and from TFA to the dystopian science fiction article again; but already it was impossible to say which was which."

Internet addiction?

[Anonymous Coward]

Saying "Internet Addiction" is like saying "Ethernet addiction". It means nothing.

What is this guy doing for 15 hours? Is he chatting with friends? Young kids spend hours on the telephone before and this wasn't telephone addiction. Sure communication is better now, but simple chat rooms existed for modem users 20+ years ago. Nothing new there either.

Is this guy playing games? Is he gambling? Is he looking at porn? Is he sending emails? What is he doing for 15 hours?

The point being, the action that this person is doing online is what they are addicted to, not the network access. If you are addicted to looking at porn or playing games, for example, then that is the issue not "the Internet".

What about kids who play their playstation for hours and hours on end? Is this and addiction?

The bottom line is "the internet made me do it" is just another excuse.

Re:Sounds about right

[Anonymous Coward]

Old communism and new communism still have two things in common: reeducation of deviants, defining any 'social' problem as a mental disorder that they can treat/imprison you for, and an almost fanatical devotion to the Pope. Oh damn!

Comment removed

[account_deleted]

Comment removed based on user account deletion

A Clockwork Internet

[Helmholtz]

Alex:

You needn't take it any further, sir. You've proved to me that all this gold farming and internets is wrong, wrong, and terribly wrong. I've learned me lesson, sir. I've seen now what I've never seen before. I'm cured! Praise god!

Dr. Brodsky:

You're not cured yet, boy.

Alternatives

[moore.dustin]

Internet addiction really boils down to needing to fill a need. People are often drawn to a certain area of the internet for whatever reason(most likely a personal interest in something), and then become connected to the community that they found there(anonymity makes it easy). If it were not for the social networks and communities online, what would people really have to do to consume that much time a day? Sure, exceptions are around where people do just that, but as for your everyday John Doe, he would not be able to fill that time without the online communities.

The social aspect found online is the root of most internet addiction. Once people are able to fill the need to social interaction online, they are much more prone to addiction. Think of all the WOW addicts out there - They are almost all addicted to the social community, not the game itself.

To curb this addiction, you need to present alternative to the addicted person which would fill the void being created by unplugging. These people will have to get that social interaction offline, but that is easier said than done for many. They may be shy, sheltered, socially inept, or any combinations of things which yield a socially awkward person. If an alternative cannot be presented to fulfill the need for social contact which is inviting and easily available, these people trying to cure an internet addiction are doomed to relapse over and over again.

Ulterior Motive

[KermodeBear]

I believe that China takes internet 'addiction', or usage of it at all, very seriously because of the access to information it provides. Information that China would rather censor. This is a perfect excuse to indoctrinate.

Re:Sounds about right

[bunions]

yes, thank god something like this could never happen in America, right?

Re:Sounds about right

[Hoi Polloi]

We are more advanced. Instead of putting them in jail we diagnose our kids as ADD and give them drugs.

Re:Sounds about right

[Maxo-Texas]

Don't kid yourself.

My co-worker in the US did this to his daughter for 18 months when she started running away. There's a large facility with a capacity for 500 "students" in this city. They "reeducate" the kids. Sound familiar?

He paid a lot of money and she was basically brainwashed back to a safe mental state (honestly- she was headed down a self destructive bad road).

Parents have large amounts of freedom to brainwash their children until those children move out.

Re:Just a thought

[Maxo-Texas]

And notice even in the darkest days of the 1950's in the US, folks didn't think it was that bad. The only people who saw problems were subversives and commies.

Thank god for the baby boom- at least it blew things loose for a little while but now I fear the aging baby boom is going to get really repressive.

Internet? Or Online games?

[TheGreatGraySkwid]

All the stories I've seen on this have just used the vague tag "Internet Addiction," but it seems like most of the individual stories I've seen described involve addiction to an online strategy or RPG game of one sort or another. This imprecision bugs me intensely, since addiction to online gaming seems like quite a different beast from, say, /. addiction.

Has anyone seen accounts of "addiction" that weren't gaming related?

Re:Human Rights Watch: Abuse of Psychiatry in Chin

[Anonymous Coward]

"The systematic abuse of psychiatry for political purposes in China became internationally known in late 1999, when large numbers of Falungong practitioners were reportedly interned in psychiatric hospitals

Abuse? Do you have any idea what Falun Gong members believe? You would HAVE to be mentally ill to believe all that crap about gaining salvation through a magic wheel turning in your stomach, implanted psychically by your human cult leader who calls himself a god and who demands your abject allegiance. Calling Falun Gong a "meditation technique" is like calling Scientology a "personality development system." It's a whole lot more insidious than that, and the Chinese government should be commended for protecting its citizens from such mind-bending evil.

Here's an idea...

[kidcharles]

Before sending him off to boot camp, maybe the parents could try taking away his computer. Or, here's another crazy thought, letting him go online for only 2 hours a day. If he goes to an internet cafe instead, regulate how often he can go outside the house. How did the solution to this problem become locking him up in a cage hundreds of miles from home?

Re:This just in...

[raddan]

I suspect that this has more to do with the free flow of information than 'addiction'. Since when has China been so worried about the welfare of its citizens? That prison cell sounds really conducive to mental health.

Re:This just in...

[bunions]

> Since when has China been so worried about the welfare of its citizens?

Since when has -any- country been so worried about the welfare of its citizen? Replace 'internet' with 'pot' and you're describing America.

Re:Propaganda. Propaganda. Propaganda.

[Fantastic Lad]

Yeah I mean China has such a great track record with human rights. So why should we believe something this crazy?!

That's not the point. The point is that China has been fascist for a very long time. The question we can benefit from asking is, "Why is China in the news now?" Five years ago, nobody cared what China did. It was a big blank spot on public perception. That's no longer the case. The spotlight of media attention doesn't swing around unless it is being pushed.

-FL

Re:Sounds about right

[Maxo-Texas]

Yea I know. There is a fundamental rule that parents can raise their kids to be suicidal murderous monsters if they want to (not joking- serious here). It's a fundamental problem with Iraq- the only way to really fix it would be to reeducate the kids to different values and get them out of the hands of their murderous parents.

Only if you cross certain arbitrary lines (feeding a kid too much food, keeping them in cages instead of beds, touching them in a way that is taken to be inappropriate) does society jump down your ass and take them away from you.

You can brainwash them and teach them any wierd world view (an entire generation of kids in the US is being brought up with very extreme values because of private schools) and that's okay.

Public schools were a great system for sanding off those extremes and giving you the agility to simultaneously believe your wacko beliefs but also let others have there own. The current generation is much more intolerant and since their way is the only way they have ever been exposed to they can't compromise on gay rights or abortion or other issues. They feel they MUST control other people's behavior because it is just a crime against the universe.

Re:This just in...

[pembo13]

See how you got modded flaimbait? That will tell you to talk truthfully about the US of A in public. Shame on you!