Net Addicts Treated With Electric Shocks
A Washington Post report Wednesday claims the government-approved clinics that treat internet addicts use mild electric shock treatments to cure internet addiction. The Chinese government has used harsh methods in the past to successfully battle substance abuse addiction and is now applying similar methods in dealing with the mounting social problem of web nerdiness. I guess I shouldn’t marginalize internet addiction by calling it “web nerdiness,” however it is what it is: socially awkward teens who substitute human interaction with computer dependence. A recent survey found that 14% of China’s teens are vulnerable to internet addiction. This doesn’t sound terribly grave. The Post fails to describe what this “vulnerability” to net addiction entails, but the way I see it, every teen these days is vulnerable. Chinese officials have focused on internet gaming when discussing addiction. Many local governments have passed resolutions to ban avid web gamers from internet cafés and also limiting Chinese teens from spending more than 5 hours on the web. But the most interesting aspect of the Chinese government’s war on internet addiction is the unusual form of therapy that has become standard at the treatment clinics. As the Washington Post reports, a popular Beijing-based clinic uses electric shock and other methods common in treating heroin addicts including military discipline, antidepressants, antipsychotics and intravenous drips. The example given for “military discipline” is a Chinese military man in fatigues busting into the sleeping quarters of one of the addicts and yelling “this is for your own good” in Chinese. That sounds like this thing I saw on Jenny Jones once where these parents sent their children to boot camp where they were verbally abused by these former military dudes who would yell directly in the faces of the messed up kids. Fucked up. In fact, the Beijing treatment center is located on a military base. Is it because China feels the best way to get through to a computer nerd is by subjecting him to a tough soldier? If China really wants to solve the problem of internet addiction, maybe it should start by having the 24-hour internet cafés close at night. And as long as electric shocks are fair game, how about hooking the shock up to the keyboards at the internet cafés? After the tenth consecutive hour of playing BlastArab, the teen gets blasted himself.
•Washington Post: China Treats Internet ‘Addicts’ Sternly