CHINA: Parents try shock tactics to cure net 'addicts'Chinese teenagers hooked on the internet are being subjected to electro-shock therapy at a clinic that claims they will be "reborn" free of the obsession.
However, its harsh methods have caused an outcry after some of the 3,000 youths treated so far began posting their experiences - on the web.
Overuse of the internet has become a household worry in China. The country has more than 300m internet users, 40m of whom play online games.
An official study two years ago claimed that almost 10 per cent of the nation's young people were "addicted to the web".
According to the media the physical and psychological conditions associated with such a craving include depression, muscle weakness, fainting and anorexia.
Now thousands of parents who despair of turning their children's minds back to school have resorted to Dr Yang Yonxin, a charismatic and forceful physician who says he has a "cure".
His 100 or so young inmates, mostly boys under 16, have been sent to the treatment centre in Shandong province, eastern China, by their parents because they have become hyperactive and uncontrollable.
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[Source:
The Times]
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