Internet addiction is an issue taken very seriously in China and with good reason. The New York Times has been to visit a rehab center for teenagers in the country, where some of the residents report having spent three consecutive days playing games at internet cafes. Feeling the need to take drastic action to counter such unhealthy behavior, their parents have resorted to lying to and even subduing their children with sleeping pills in order to deliver them to the therapy clinic.
Take a look inside one of China’s internet rehab camps
Once there, the patients are guarded by soldiers and put through a regimen of exercise, therapy, and medication to help them “reconnect with reality.” While it all may seem rather extreme, the latter half of the Times’ mini-documentary shows that the people running the clinic understand the nuance of the condition they’re treating, saying that it’s loneliness and a feeling of detachment that drive kids to expend their time and passions online.
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