Approximately 24 million young people in China are addicted to the internet, half of which are specifically “obsessed” with online games. Treatment centers have appeared around the country, ready to treat the problem and ‘cure’ these young people from a terrible, deathly serious affliction.
An official from these camps has gone on record to explain what goes on:
“We have to use military-style methods such as total immersion and physical training on these young people. We need to teach them some discipline and help them to establish a regular lifestyle.”
This includes providing camouflage, army-style uniforms, disciplined bedtimes and two hours of physical training. This all coexists with psychological training, traditional Chinese philosophy and calligraphy classes. It's definitely nothing resembling fun.
Last week, a group of inmates at the Huai’an Internet Addiction Treatment Centre decided that they’d finally had enough of the “monotonous work and intensive training”. Working as a team, they tied their duty supervisor to his bed and made a run for it. These 14 patients were aged 15 to 22, and they proceeded to hail a taxi to take them to a nearby town in east China’s Jiangsu province. They were discovered when the driver became suspicious of the identically-dressed young men who were unable to pay the fare. The driver dropped them off at the police station instead.
The Chinese government avidly supports these centers and even released a white paper on the topic, detailing their commitment to the “online safety” of their minors and promising to take measures to prevent young people “overindulging in the internet.” But treatment centers' methods were questioned last year when a 15 year old boy was admitted to a training camp, only to be beaten to death hours after his admittance. The instructors involved in that incident were recently sentenced to 10 years in prison, but very few changes to prevent this occurring again have been publicized by the government. Courtesy of gamepron.com/news
