Internet Addiction Clinics Cracking Down on Beatings

China was one of the first countries to recognize internet addiction as a psychological illness—and then beat the crap out of people w88 suffering from it. As The Register points out, a 2008 government supported report stated that those who gamed more than six hours in a day and then experienced withdrawal type symptoms suffered from Internet Addiction Disorder. To combat this, treatment clinics, which looked more like boot camps and less like hospitals, appeared across China. No wonder a group of kids escaped from one huc of these centers back in 2010. https://kotaku.com/chinese-internet-addicts-stage-daring-boot-camp-escape-5558229cnx.cmd.push(function(){cnx({"playerId":"e3616d04-4972-4839-a63a-c6975e2e9731","settings":{"advertising":{"macros":{"AD_UNIT":"/23178111854/od.kotaku.com/article","CHILD_UNIT":"article","POST_ID":"5939525","POST_TYPE":"post","CHANNEL":"kotaku-east","SECTION":"","SUBSECTION":"","CATEGORIES":"kotaku-east","TAGS":"","NOP":"0"},"timeBeforeFirstAd":0}}}).render("cnx-player-main")}); At these treatment centers, both electro-therapy and “therapeutic” physical punishment have been banned; however, one teen still ended up dead and others in the hospital. (The men who killed that teen both got up to ten years in prison.) After strengthening regulations even more, China started licensing internet therapists, and China Daily reports that instructors who use violence will now have their licenses revoked. Good. Web addiction instructors face scrutiny [China Daily] China’s net addiction staff told to stop the beatings [The Register] (Top photo: Andy Wong | AP) Kotaku East is your slice of Asian HUC99 internet culture, bringing you the latest talking points from Japan, Korea, China and beyond. Tune in every morning from 4am to 8am.