Electric Shock For Internet Addicts In China

In a treatment that equates Internet addicts to mentally ill people, China is giving electric shocks to people who spend more time on the Internet than required. The Chinese government has launched a nationwide campaign to treat "Internet addiction" and many Internet-addiction clinics have been opened in this regard. A recent survey found that nearly 14 percent of teens in China are vulnerable to becoming addicted to the Internet. The Communist Youth League calls it a "a grave social problem" that threatens the youth of this Asian country. According to the Washington Post, one such clinic in Daxing, a suburb of Beijing, the capital, is the oldest and largest and is located on an army training base. It has 60 patients on a normal day and as many as 280 during peak periods. The country has also gone to the extent of implementing control programs that logs teens off networked games after five hours. The Communist government has limited programs for Web access and also censors sites to seek online control. The "addicts" are treated by counseling, military discipline, drugs, hypnosis and mild electric shocks. The clinic also has metal grates and padlocks on every door and bars on every window.