Internet addiction treatment leads to Chinese teenager’s death
By Dave Parrack
The idea of Internet addiction may seem funny but it has had tragic consequence for one Chinese teenager. After being sent to a clinic to overcome his Internet addiction, he was allegedly beaten to death by the people paid to supervise him through his course of treatment.
Many of us use the Internet an excessive amount. Some do so for work, some for entertainment, and some because they are addicted. Seriously, they cannot help it. In the same way as people get addicted to drinking, smoking, doing drugs, or having sex, people are becoming addicted to the Internet, surfing the Web for hours on end each and every day.
The Times reports how the parents of 16-year-old Deng Senshan sent him to the Guangxi Qihuang Survival Training Camp in an effort to wean him off his addiction to the Internet. A month away from home at the center costs around $900 and is a course of action being taken by an increasing number of worried parents in China.
It’s estimated that 10 million Chinese youngsters legitimately suffer from Internet addiction. That may seem like a huge amount of people but it’s a fraction of the 338 million Web users China claims to have. The methods used to cure these addicts have proved controversial, with the Health Ministry being forced to ban the use of electroshock therapy as a treatment recently.
Senshan’s father dropped his son at the center with a warning to the supervisors to go easy on him because he was introverted and shy. Although they agreed, the same supervisors then placed Senshan in solitary confinement on his first day and allegedly beat him as punishment for not running fast enough during a period of physical activity.
Senshan was pronounced dead on Sunday morning and police have arrested four people in connection with his death. The case is still being investigated but if it’s found that Senshan was beaten to death in a bid to rid him of his addiction to the Internet surely the Chinese government must take further measures to prevent similar tragedies occurring.
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August 6th, 2009
Hmm nice read.
Gives me a lot to think about. Never would’ve even thought about myself as being addicted to the internet, because it’s no something I would’ve classed myself as being able to be addicted to in the first place.
But I suppose the amount I use it probably would classify my as addicted, especially since I can get on it everywhere with my phone.