China tackles rise in 'Internet addiction'
Updated Thu. Dec. 29 2005 9:21 AM ET
CTV.ca News Staff
China recently recorded its 100 millionth Internet user, but instead of earning cheers, the Internet's rising popularity is fueling concern that some surfers have become dangerously addicted to the Web.
China has launched a controversial treatment it argues will prove effective in tackling the growing problem.
Xiao Yi, like so many Chinese teens, was so hooked on video games he would sometimes play for two days straight, even skipping food or sleep.
Distraught, the 13-year-old rode an elevator to the top of a 24-storey highrise -- from which he jumped to his death. He left behind a note explaining that he was going to another world to meet the game's characters.
Speaking through an interpreter, his father Zhang Jianhua told CTV News his son was a good boy.
"I don't know how he got so lost," Zhang said.
But in the world's most populous country, experts estimate as many as 2.5 million Internet users are addicted to e-mail, chat programs and, above all, video games.
Aiming to reverse the trend, the Beijing Military Region Central Hospital has been turned into a boot camp for the Internet-addicted.
According to the director of China's first officially licensed clinic for Internet addiction, people treated there have a hard time distinguishing between real and virtual worlds.
"So our treatment is aimed at getting them back into reality" clinic director Dr. Tao Ran told CTV News.
That means, rather than going online, clients are subjected to demanding drills intended to curb their Internet overuse.
As part of their two-week therapy, clients are jolted with electric acupuncture, probed with psychological counselling and even given daily doses of anti-depressants intended to ease anxiety from computer withdrawal.
While such treatment would likely cause controversy in the West, there is growing demand in China for the $1,000 program.
Considering that the average Chinese city-dweller earns just $20 a week, the price is high. But patients who've gone through the government-owned clinic say it works.
"I came here because I was destroying my life with computers and didn't know it," Fu Yi Mang said through an interpreter. "Now I can see how bad it was. I'm much better now."
Spurred by that kind of testimonial, demand is indeed growing.
In the coming months, the hospital has plans to expand from 20 beds to 150.
But in today's wired world, where the Internet is increasingly hard to avoid, at least one in every five people who go through the program get addicted again.
Possible symptoms of Internet addiction include:
* a sense of well-being or euphoria while online;
* feelings of emptiness, depression or irritability when not online;
* inability to stop the activity; and
* neglect of personal hygiene, skipping meals and changes in sleep patterns.
Prepared with files from CTV's Steve Chao in Beijin
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