Slashdot Mirror
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. "
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.
From TFA: "Sun looks forward to returning to school and getting on with his life. The first task on his agenda when he gets home: Get online. He needs to tell his worried Internet friends where he was these past few weeks." Obviously he is totally cured of his "internet addiction..."
Spending 15 hours on the internet at a time might be a normal reaction to living in an extremely oppressive society.
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.
This is my sig. There are many like it but this one is mine.
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.
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.