Internet Addiction

Mr. Brightside · Mar 28, 2007

How many hours do you surf per day?

http://rawstory.com/news/afp/Tough_rehab_for_China_s_fallen_cybe_03272007.html

Tough rehab for China's fallen cyber-supermen

Knees shaking, Chen Cheng explains why his parents have sent him to a clinic for Internet addicts.

The 17-year-old high school student was a superman in cyberspace -- once spending three days and nights playing online games, uninterrupted by meals or sleep.

But he paid the price offline.

"I had no sense of achievement from anything I did in the physical world," the bespectacled youth said.

Here at the Internet Addiction Treatment Centre in Beijing's southeastern suburb of Daxing, he is put through a strict regimen that might as well be boot camp -- and for good reason, since this is an army-run clinic inside a military district.

The 20-odd teenagers at the centre, all placed here involuntarily by their families, get up at 6:30 am for long days of physical training and team sports, mixed with quiet therapy sessions with psychiatrists.

In one room inside the bleak barracks-style building, more serious cases are treated with low-voltage electrical jolts via pins inserted into the skin according to the prescriptions of traditional Chinese medicine.

"Not everyone has to do this, but we suggest it for patients who have serious problems with sleep," said Wang Yanbin, a doctor who was carefully monitoring that the electrical current does not exceed safe levels.

"We apply this three to five times over a 10-day period, and the results are usually very good."

The primary purpose of it all: To isolate the patients from the Internet, which so far has been an overwhelming influence on their lives.

The secondary purpose: To teach them there is a life beyond cyberspace.

"Some of the kids here live in another world. They assume the role of kings or wizards. To use a Western expression, their soul has left for the other side," said Tao Ran, the centre's founder and director.

The centre seeks to remedy this through a direct encounter with the physical world. The students do their own laundry. They play with toy guns, and paint with brushes.

The centre is one of an estimated 30 clinics scattered across China that have been set up to deal with Internet addiction, a growing problem in a country with 137 million online users.

The price for a month-long stay at the Beijing center is nearly 10,000 yuan (1,300 dollars), or a year's salary for many Chinese, and only a tiny minority can send their children for treatment here.

But Tao estimated China has altogether 2.5 million Internet addicts, overwhelmingly young, male and attracted to online games, and he considers it a troubling problem.

"The violence and sex of the games is likely to have a very deep influence on them. And it's having this impact during the years that the personality is formed," he said.

"Close to 40 percent of the kids here show violent behaviour. They may start fighting over trifles."

Internet addiction among teenagers has become a social problem, the state-run Xinhua news agency said recently.

It cited a recent survey showing that 33.5 percent of juvenile delinquency cases in the Beijing area -- including rape and robbery -- were linked to excessive time spent on games.

"It is common to see students from primary and middle schools lingering in Internet bars overnight, puffing on cigarettes and engrossed in online games," Yu Wen, a lawmaker, told Xinhua.

The Beijing clinic, which was China's first when it opened in late 2004, has treated more than 1,500 people aged from 14 to 36, and claims to have a 70 percent success rate.

Junior high school students account for 30 percent of patients and senior high school 50 percent, while the remaining 20 percent come from university.

While the vast majority are youngsters from China, it has also accepted ethnic Chinese patients from Canada, Malaysia and Sweden, as well as an American who had to communicate via an interpreter.

The clinic is relatively strict during the first 10 days. Doors and windows are locked.

"Some of the patients go nuts when they realise they can't leave," said Guan Peihong, a 17-year-old high school student from northeast China's Heilongjiang province. "They scream and shout that they want to get out."

Later during their stay, the patients are allowed outside on small errands. But this privilege is sometimes abused.

Not long ago a group of four youngsters were taken out by a staff member but ran away, only to be discovered later in an Internet cafe, according to Tao.

When that happens, the clinic responds by putting the patients in a room equipped with just a bed and a desk.

"We give them a book to write down their thoughts: why did he run away? What do they want to do with their lives? It takes about two to three days. It's not the same as locking them up," said Tao.

"These children have just been playing all day long for their entire lives. They've never had a chance to think about their future. Some come up to me and themselves request to be put in the room."

So does it work? Some patients, such as 17-year-old Chen Cheng, have stopped thinking so much about playing Internet games, mainly because they have developed other, more immediate priorities.

"I definitely have had the desire to get online. But now I feel it less. I'm just eager to get out," he said Chen.

Tao is optimistic the problem can be solved and he is eager to emphasise that he is not on a crusade against the Internet.

"Overall," he said, "the Internet is good for China."
Click to expand...

Rocket River · Mar 28, 2007

I beleive in it . . . .
at one point I thouhgt I was going that way
checking emails every 15 minutes

but
never went DAYS online - merely hours
I think if we get the Matrix like interface
the number of dead people starving online will be massive

Rocket River

Invisible Fan · Mar 28, 2007

Rocket River said:

I think if we get the Matrix like interface
the number of dead people starving online will be massive

Rocket River
Click to expand...

Looking back, the Matrix within a Matrix idea for the sequels would've been better than the steaming pile of crap they put out.

Kyakko · Mar 28, 2007

i do web design/maintainance for a living and spend about half of my time procrasting at work. does that count?

BrieflySpeaking · Mar 28, 2007

bout 2 hours a day

rhino17 · Mar 28, 2007

We have laptops at my high school, so I am on it right now. it's probably the worst learning tool for a kid in hs. No one stays on task

oomp · Mar 28, 2007

When I was working I easily put in 10-12. Now that I'm home - 1 tops.

I dropped it cold turkey style yo.

Icehouse · Mar 28, 2007

Too damn much.......

Xenochimera · Mar 28, 2007

ouch, china took a hardline, using treatment for drug addcits for net addicts.

Surfguy · Mar 28, 2007

I guess we don't hear about American kids playing games for 2 or 3 straight days. Over here...that is probably considered common. lol

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