Chinese clinic treats teen internet addicts with hypnosis, shock therapy

Normally we don't really like covering this whole theory of "internet addiction," mainly because it makes us nervous about the 12+ hours we spend online each and every day, but a recent look by the Washington Post at one of those clinics for PC-lovin' teens is interesting enough to warrant a mention. As we've seen before, China -- never one of the more progressive countries when it comes to encouraging online participation -- has followed several other East Asian countries in attempting to diagnose and cure netizens and gamers of their "unhealthy" dependence on computers, but what we didn't know were some of the rather extreme methods used to achieve this. According to the Post, one clinic in the Beijing suburb of Daxing keeps some of its 12 to 17-year-old patients locked in rooms with barred windows for most of the day, treating them with a combination of counseling, medication, and military-style discipline. While some residents clearly have no need for such a facility -- one young man who only surfed four to five hours a week said he came to Daxing to "get away from my parents" -- there do seem to be more hardcore cases of lonely individuals spending all their free time online at the expense of their careers and social lives. At the Daxing clinic, these troubled teens whose "souls are gone to the online world" are housed together on the third floor of the building, where they are subjected to hypnosis and even mild shock therapy in an attempt to rid them of their love of surfing. It's not really clear from the article what the success rate is for veterans of the clinic, but we imagine many of them find the conditions so distasteful that they swear off technology altogether simply for fear of being sent back. As for you, since no one will be sending you to internet rehab anytime soon, just continue reading all of the posts on this page while occasionally glancing over at and clicking on the bright, colorful ads.

[Via Smart Mobs]

[jenifer @ Mar 19th 2008 3:20AM]

When child are at risk, he feels hopeless, and worthless. At this time only parents of troubled teen can help their child and motivate them. Parents have to teach them about rules and regulation. Family Therapy is really a better option than others. Parenting is an effective and helpful key for troubled teens.
http://www.restoreteens.com/

[Michael @ May 29th 2008 10:09AM]

ONline Gaming is just spoils kids.............studies and mind..

**************************************************************************************************************************************
Michael

Addiction treatment and recovery resources for the addict and their families. http://www.addictiontreatment.net

**************************************************************************************************************************************

[pardeep311 @ Jul 3rd 2008 12:00AM]

The numbers of therapy is now using for troubled teens. Chinese therapy for troubled teens is in one of them. This therapy is very much tough. They used even shock experiment on troubled teens..

http://www.ala4christ.com/

[Ashish @ Nov 19th 2008 4:55AM]

For struggling youths there are various troubled teen options. These options include boarding schools, boot camps, rehab centers and others that are supportive in their recovery from conduct problems, drug, alcohol or chemical substance abuse, and psychological disorders.
http://www.teenageproblems.net/

[struggling teens @ Feb 9th 2009 5:12AM]

There are many struggling teens help center that offer wide range of treatment problems of troubled youth. The center is giving exclusive and modern techniques of treatment for quick recovery.

http://www.strugglingteen.net/

[CharlieX @ Feb 23rd 2007 1:11PM]

holy sweet medication... why don't they send these kids to a real surf camp, or a skate park, or go build houses for the poor... get some sunshine and exercise for the love of humanity. Follow up with a workshop about talking to girls. Problem solved.

[Speeddemon2008 @ Feb 23rd 2007 1:14PM]

what bright colorful ads? oh thats right i use firefox with adblock plus. i havent seen an ad since i dont know, forever.

[Andrew Lazetera @ Nov 10th 2008 3:31PM]

Yeah, after the 1st time I read "Disclaimer, AOL/TimeWarner is a parent company of Engadget" I took Engadget out of my allow list for adblock. None of my bandwidth will go to finance AOheLL

[Matt @ Feb 23rd 2007 1:23PM]

The world is sold on the idea that psychiatrists know how to treat anything. Despite the fact that psychiatric patients are more often harmed than anything, and in fact they are never cured of whatever it is that they are treat for.

Look at this: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b30iwhEw9ho

And even in their own literature they admit to the fact that they do not know how electro-shock (Electro-convulsive therapy or ECT) works.

Despite all the lack of science behind psychiatry, people flock to the psychiatrists who charge them money to destroy their bodies.

www.cchr.org

[Blunt @ Feb 23rd 2007 5:24PM]

Matt you've obviously a Scientologist(freak). No one wants to be part of your cult. Why don't you go worship lord Xena and spare us your delusional bullshit. Or better yet go kill yourself.

[Veritas II @ Feb 23rd 2007 1:26PM]

^-- Wow, Engadget has managed to ally itself with Scientology.

That's classy!!

[Matt B @ Feb 23rd 2007 1:27PM]

These kids are prime candidates for careers that have them sitting in front of a computer all day. Don't brainwash them into thinking computers are bad. Spin it in a way that can be productive.

[Electromodo @ Feb 23rd 2007 1:41PM]

Kudos for the picture! :))))
I wish my dad did the same thing to me... its too late now...

[Brian @ Feb 23rd 2007 2:14PM]

back in my day, we had to walk 15 miles in the snow, up hill both ways, just to gain access to the internet.
kids these days...

[Paula @ Feb 26th 2007 1:09PM]

Internet, schminternet...
I had to dial-in to a BBS for MY porn. And ASCII art was good enough for us back then. None of this "moving pictures" crap. If I wanted my pictures to move, I shook my screen.

[Jean-Michel Decombe @ Feb 23rd 2007 2:52PM]

Love the picture :::chuckle:::. Someday, people will be treated for real life addiction when they are unable to live 24/7 in Second Life.

[eric @ Feb 23rd 2007 3:01PM]

ONline Gaming is just ... too... dman shit.

[What?! @ Feb 24th 2007 12:00AM]

Just make the addicts surf through Myspace pages, especially ones with embedded videos of what they hate and backgrounds that make them want to vomit.