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Teen Killed At Chinese Internet Addiction Camp
eldavojohn writes "Sixteen-year-old Deng Senshan was tragically beaten to death by three of his instructors in an internet addiction camp in the Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region of China. Reportedly it was for not being able to run fast enough. An article in the Wall Street Journal says that, 'China's netizens have played a key role in drawing nationwide attention to recent cases of deaths in prisons and detention centers, so it should be no surprise that they are up in arms over the fate of one of their own. Many questioned the fairly new diagnosis of "Internet addiction" as a mental disorder.' You may recall electroshock treatment being banned from use on internet addicts in China. According to Xinhua, more than 100 juveniles remain in 'treatment' at the camp, which has stayed open. Perhaps for Senshan it would have been better to let him endure his cruel affliction instead of having his parents pay over $1,000 to have him beaten to death?"
Don't worry, he'll respawn in a few seconds
If internet addition is now punishable by death, Slashdot is going to become a very, very lonely place.
Perhaps for Senshan it would have been better to let him endure his cruel affliction instead of having his parents pay over $1,000 to have him beaten to death?
And knowing China, they probably also charged his parents for the cost of the stick used to beat him.
Also, I don't know much about these "internet addiction" facilities. Are we talking about people who spend too much time playing WoW, or dissidents who use the internet for communication? Somehow I'm seeing this as being a gulag for political prisoners, but maybe that's just me being cynical.
I can only wonder if there have been other deaths in this program that did not make the news.
Reportedly it was for not being able to run fast enough
If only China had the same attitude towards Windows...
Wow. Not to let me heart bleed all over the place here, but... what? This was a needless death in a camp that didn't need to exist run by instructors who used "punishment" that wasn't appropriate. He had an "internet addiction"... he wasn't a murderer. You don't think this is somehow newsworthy on a site devoted to geeks and geek-related stuff? I just love these "so what people die every day" type posts. So, just to be clear, it's overkill to mourn a school shooting because more people are dying in Darfur, right?
A larger tragedy doesn't make this one any less important. It is more relatable, too: ./ers probably feel more in common with this kid that 3 year olds dying in Somalia, so it's news here.
I think the shocking thing is *why* he died - someone killed him. He didn't just starve or get malaria or something - he was murdered.
I'm a student. I write iPhone apps.
Look people, tragedies happen all the time. For every poor kid beaten to death in China at a "gaming addiction recovery camp", there's thousands more dying of starvation and illnesses in other parts of the world.
This isn't news. This is China. Do you expect differently?
So because the numbers are small, we should ignore it? If you were raped and murdered we could go to the police with your logic and say, "Look, for every person raped and murdered thousands die in automobile accidents on the streets so don't waste your time with this case."
The fact that 'internet addiction' is ill defined and that this was a CHILD not an adult and the fact that it's government run should cause alarm bells to ring even if it is only one case. How do you know the action of beating children is not commonplace and applied to thousands of so called "internet addicts"? How do you know this isn't an attempt to weed out would-be dissidents at an early age?
Your compliance amazes me. Yes, hunger and starvation is a problem but so is this we can report about this on Slashdot and read about hunger and food shortages on CNN.
I'm sorry but "this is China" does not cause me to close my eyes to unalienable human rights that every human being in the world deserves!
My work here is dung.
Does anyone else see the irony in sending a bunch of computer nerds to camp, and charging them a nice even binary number to do it?
Do not argue with an idiot. He will drag you down to his level and beat you with experience.
Did he drop any good items?
In America, you can beat internet addiction. In communist China, internet addiction beats you.
This isn't news. This is China. Do you expect differently?
From you? Not really. From people like you, I expect braindead nonsense whenever the subject contains the word "China" or other related subjects.
For the rest of us - I think it is worth noting that TFA mentions that "a police officer" states that "We are investigating a case where a high school student was beaten to death by his camp supervisors. The case is still under investigation" - IOW, a representative of the local officialdom talks openly about this case to a newsagency, in much the same way as a London police officer would, and refuses to give further details because they are still investigating, just like elsewhere in the world.
The reason I feel the need to draw attention to this is, that it seems to escape the attention of some. Do I need to spell it out any further? There is no "Government Coverup" here; no reasons to hate the Chinese for being Chinese.
You fucking hypocrite. You are sitting on /. typing your rant on a computer that was largely made with Chinese parts/labor, probably wearing shoes/clothing that were made in China and god knows what else. I'm sorry but you don't get to throw stones when you live in a glass house.
I submitted this story in an attempt to raise awareness in our community about a death in an internet addiction camp. Who knows how many others there have been prior to this? And what, stone thrower, have you done?
... not pushing my ideals and isms on the sovereign people of China. Basic human rights are the only thing I push and I'm prepared to argue that.
And now you're criticizing me for purchasing Chinese products? What the hell does that have to do with this? You think the solution is for us to band together and boycott Chinese products? Do you really believe that causing their economic structure to collapse would be the answer? Did trade embargoes work for North Korea and pre-war Iraq?
I'm an American citizen, I have no control over the sovereign nation of China. All I can hope to do is get word out to everyone around the world and hopefully spread news to the citizens of China so they take action. A revolution from the outside is meaningless and often dangerous/deadly/destructive.
I don't want Chinese people to suffer, that's it. I don't care if their system is Communist, Capitalist, Dictatorship or Democracy. Get the word out so they fix it. Go ahead and call me a hypocrite but I'm doing what little I can by spreading facts and news
My work here is dung.
This sort of thing happens all the time in the states. Google "Aaron Bacon" and he's hardly the only one. US boot camps have a really bad history in this area only nobody seems to care very much since they kids were somehow "troubled" (allegedly, since there is no due process).
"Reportedly it was for not being able to run fast enough."
Isn't that the reason why anyone gets beaten to death?
I liked these "Internet Addiction Camps" better when they were called "Summer Camp".
Seriously, when I got too into games as a kid (Dragon Warrior 3, Wizardry 2, and Final Fantasy 2 being the early ones) my mother just walked in, hit the power button, and told me to go outside and not come back in until the sun was down.
Why is this such a hard concept? Is it an asian culture thing? I mean, think of Japan. You have hikikomoris, sitting in the dark in their rooms, with parents enabling them by just feeding them sliced cheese through the crack under the door. China and Kroea have people literally playing video games until their bladders burst and they die.
Granted, A+ for effort but big fat F for common sense, eh?
Is "He'll leave the room when he gets hungry enough" or "Just turn off the freaking router" such a hard concept?