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China Bans Shock Treatment For Internet Addiction

Posted by samzenpus on from the just-put-down-the-mouse dept.

angry tapir writes "China has banned the use of shock therapy to treat Internet addiction after its use at one hospital sparked nationwide controversy. The hospital drew wide media coverage in recent months after Internet users claiming to have received the treatment wrote in blogs and forums about being tied down and subjected to shocks for 30 minutes at a time."

7 of 113 comments (clear)

  1. pic by Canazza · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Honestly, this seems like another human rights abuse... people should have the right to choose if they want to go through shock therapy!

    but did we really require the big pic there?

    --
    It pays to be obvious, especially if you have a reputation for being subtle.
    1. Re:pic by Psyborgue · · Score: 3, Insightful

      You're modded funny by some people actually think that way, and not just about internet addiction, but pretty much anything deemed "undesireable" by society at large. Nails that stick out get nailed down, as they say... so be a good polite model citizen and you won't get "re-educated". This is hardly unique to china. Forced treatment exists in the US too, especially with teenagers.

  2. Oh, I get it "sparked controversy" by dmomo · · Score: 3, Insightful

    In other news... "Internet addicts treated with electricity". The real story here is that this is there to be banned in the first place.

  3. Before anyone asks about Western shock therapy... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Insightful

    When electroconvulsive therapy (ECT) is used in psychiatric settings here in the West, patients are completely unconscious and pumped full of muscle relaxants to keep them from jumping all over the table. Since they're unconscious, they feel no pain.. completely different from what the Chinese seem to be doing, which seeks to use electric shock as painful punishment for too much WOW.
    Needless to say, I didn't RTFA.

  4. More like Ineffective by TTURabble · · Score: 2, Insightful

    The hospital drew wide media coverage in recent months after Internet users claiming to have received the treatment wrote in blogs and forums

    So the internet addicted patients used the internet to complain about the problems with the internet addiction treatment?

  5. Re:Reminds me of the scene from Ghostbusters.... by Utini420 · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Everyone brings up that scene as if Vaikman was messing up his experiment just to flirt with the chick, but that ignores his true brilliance. Sure, he fudges the test for her -- she clearly is not psychic, she's just there as a control, so it really doesn't matter if she ever gets shocked or not. It isn't like he's testing electrocution of normal folks. But as for the guy, how is seemingly shocked for giving the right answers -- that's the whole experiment. Vaikman even says so: "I'm studying the effects of negative reinforcement on ESP ability." In other words, will you keep being psychic even if you get electrocuted for it.

    --
    A little inaccuracy sometimes saves tons of explanation.
  6. Re:Doesn't hurt them? by BabyDuckHat · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Which is evidence that, when it come to the mind, we're still just cavemen bashing things with rocks.