A day at a typical Chinese internet addiction boot camp begins with a 6:20am wake up call and morning exercises. The day continues with a strict regiment of military drills, lectures, martial arts training, and sessions with psychologists. Lights out is at 9:30 sharp. Some boot camps employ the use of electric shock treatment, while others, like the Beiteng School in Changsha that Shi unfortunately attended, enjoy beating their students with a plastic pipe, a wooden baton, and handcuffs. And parents pay thousands of dollars for this.
Internet addiction among Chinese youth is a bit of an epidemic—1 in 10 teenage internet users are estimated to suffer from the problem. US internet addiction rates run at 3-8% for the entire population (which, apparently, is mostly comprised of our Giz readership).
Shi's mother had initially been informed that he was in critical condition after "possibly" suffering from a sunstroke. He had been enrolled in the program due to his fear of hardship, weak willpower, and lack of self-confidence. It seems that a change in attitude, an increase in parent-child interaction, and some harsh regulations are in order to prevent more such deaths from occurring in the future.
36 comments:
I had no idea it was this bad in China. This makes me sick.
randy i wouldnt worry too much about that no matter how mch bullshit our country can put us through china is just batshit crazy
This is just horrible
that's pretty brutal and messed up =/
that's why I'll stop using internet, this is my last comment....
Very nice!
i've seen a documentary about this boot camp on natgeo. they're being treated like soldiers! they are also being beaten by sticks. most of the children's hands have a wound from the beating. and above all this, their counselor are worthless assholes who don't have any qualifications to be teaching there. they beat the children if they want to even without proper reason.
The world is a fucked up place.
It takes stories like this that make me feel like such a lucky person.
I don't even know where to begin with all this, a tragedy all around.
so sad =[
I don't even know what to say......
That's really awful. :\
@_@
that's a little on the extreme side..
define "addicted"
I'd be unhappy without the internet, but I wouldn't freak out or anything.
I have books to fall back on
dont say that , in china is a tradition for army, no look at movies?
the army is a noble price for all ppl from china to sevre the king
wow is this real
These camps should be shut down :( How sad
Stay classy China.
This is disgutsing
That makes me sick, but the fact of the matter is, this happens far to often, and just doesn't get covered.
That's an outrage! I can't believe we can just stand by and let this happen!
That's sick..
nice...
that horrid dude
Hopefully they'll close that camp down.
China has it rough, It's not surprising there are internet addicts there because all these censorships basically make the idea of using the internet more tempting.
That's awful. I've never heard of an internet addiction camp.
>< wtf this is some bs
Sadddddd :(
I feel so bad, that's just...Can't believe what parents can do when they are BAD parents...sigh...
thanks for the info
I always wonder how you diagnose someone with internet addiction. I bet I suffer- lol
Thats terrible news, if it was like this here, half the kids would be wiped out
wow thats just terrible
boy who surf intertubes
will soon drown under wave of....beatings
damn...
Yeesh.
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