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. "

Comments

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.

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."

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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: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.