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China Treats Internet Addiction Very Seriously 249

Posted by Zonk from the glad-i-don't-live-in-china dept.
eldavojohn writes "China has taken new extremes in preventing internet addiction in youths and is even offering boot camps to parents who want their child weaned from the electric teat. The article notes that 'no country has gone quite as far as China in embracing the theory that heavy Internet use should be defined as a mental disorder and mounting a public crusade against Internet addiction.' The article mentions the story of Sun Jiting who 'spends his days locked behind metal bars in this military-run installation, put there by his parents. The 17-year-old high school student is not allowed to communicate with friends back home, and his only companions are psychologists, nurses and other patients. Each morning at 6:30, he is jolted awake by a soldier in fatigues shouting, "This is for your own good!"' Sun found himself spending 15 hours or straight on the internet. Thanks to his parents' intervention and the treatment, he now has life mapped out until he's 84. "
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China Treats Internet Addiction Very Seriously More

China Treats Internet Addiction Very Seriously

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  • This just in... (Score:5, Funny)

    by RingDev ( 879105 ) on Tuesday February 27, 2007 @11:37AM (#18167972) Homepage Journal
    Youth engaging in self destructive addictive behavior. News at 11:00.

    -Rick

  • Sounds about right (Score:5, Insightful)

    by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday February 27, 2007 @11:39AM (#18167994)
    Old communism and new communism still have one thing in common: reeducation of deviants and defining any 'social' problem as a mental disorder that they can treat/imprison you for.

    • Re:Sounds about right (Score:5, Insightful)

      by Tackhead ( 54550 ) on Tuesday February 27, 2007 @11:52AM (#18168168)
      From TFA: > Each morning at 6:30, he is jolted awake by a soldier in fatigues shouting, "This is for your own good!"'

      'Smith!' screamed the shrewish voice from the telescreen. '6079 Smith W.! Yes, you! Bend lower, please! You can do better than that. You're not trying. Lower, please! That's better, comrade. Now stand at ease, the whole squad, and watch me.'

      > Thanks to his parents' intervention and the treatment, he now has life mapped out until he's 84.

      But it was all right, everything was all right, the struggle was finished. He had won the victory over himself. He loved Big Brother.

      And as long as I'm on an Orwell kick today, "the Slashdotters looked from TFA to the dystopian science fiction novel, and from the dystopian science fiction novel to TFA, and from TFA to the dystopian science fiction article again; but already it was impossible to say which was which."

      • Congrats, my friend, you just redefined the term "overstretched analogy" for me.

        So, in your very imaginative mind "society-individual" relationship is perfectly analogous to "parent-child" relationship?
      • Wish I wasn't out of mod points, that was pretty funny.

    • Human Rights Watch: Abuse of Psychiatry in China (Score:5, Interesting)

      by reporter ( 666905 ) on Tuesday February 27, 2007 @12:05PM (#18168366) Homepage
      According to a report [hrw.org] issued by Human Rights Watch in 2006 March 17, "The systematic abuse of psychiatry for political purposes in China became internationally known in late 1999, when large numbers of Falungong practitioners were reportedly interned in psychiatric hospitals. However, experts have long asserted that political abuse of psychiatry in China includes among its victims several other main target groups. In August 2002, GIP and HRW jointly published a 298-page report, 'Dangerous Minds: Political Psychiatry in China Today and its Origins in the Mao Era', which detailed China's extensive use of psychiatric detention as a means of silencing political dissidents, spiritual nonconformists, trade union activists, whistleblowers, and others. The report estimated that since the early 1980s more than 3,000 people had been incarcerated on such grounds."

      One political dissident in China was imprisoned for 13 years in a psychiatric hospital.

      That the Chinese government imprisons an Internet addict at the request of his own parents should surprise no one. The Chinese, not merely the government, regularly abuse psychiatry to achieve social or political goals.

      The Chinese entity that is psychologically ill is not the Internet addict, the political dissident, or the other victims improperly imprisoned for supposed psychological problems.

      Rather, the Chinese entity that is psychologically ill is Chinese society itself.

      • According to a report issued by Human Rights Watch in 2006 March 17, "The systematic abuse of psychiatry for political purposes in China became internationally known in late 1999..."
        if only they had Tom Cruise over there to educate them about the evils of psychiatry, they're just as misinformed as Matt Lauer!
      • There was a rash of these articles in American context recently as well.

        And wasn't it just a few stories back that we were all "more productive now that we were fully online (at work). ... So tell me where young IT staff is supposed to train & practice... I know! Offline!

    • Re:Sounds about right (Score:4, Insightful)

      by bunions ( 970377 ) on Tuesday February 27, 2007 @12:05PM (#18168372)
      yes, thank god something like this could never happen in America, right?

    • Re:Sounds about right (Score:5, Insightful)

      by Hoi Polloi ( 522990 ) on Tuesday February 27, 2007 @12:14PM (#18168498) Journal
      We are more advanced. Instead of putting them in jail we diagnose our kids as ADD and give them drugs.

    • Re:Sounds about right (Score:5, Insightful)

      by Maxo-Texas ( 864189 ) on Tuesday February 27, 2007 @12:14PM (#18168500)
      Don't kid yourself.

      My co-worker in the US did this to his daughter for 18 months when she started running away. There's a large facility with a capacity for 500 "students" in this city. They "reeducate" the kids. Sound familiar?

      He paid a lot of money and she was basically brainwashed back to a safe mental state (honestly- she was headed down a self destructive bad road).

      Parents have large amounts of freedom to brainwash their children until those children move out.

      • Re: (Score:3, Funny)

        by StaticEngine ( 135635 )
        What was this girl's name? I want to be sure to look her up at the strip clubs in Vegas when she finaly escapes her household.
        • Actually, she came out very stepford like. It's a very effective program and uses a lot of cult-like techniques including complete isolation from even the parents until the kids acheive certain states.

          And like 1984, it's not enough for the kids to say he is holding up four fingers when he is holding up one- the people running it are wise to that and the kids have to believe it before being allowed privileges.

          • Wonderful. Another potential nobel laureate relegated to being a sheet folder and dish washer.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by Hatta ( 162192 )
      Old communism and new communism still have one thing in common: reeducation of deviants and defining any 'social' problem as a mental disorder that they can treat/imprison you for.

      How is this any different from "new democracy", where the US has more of its population in jail than any other country, by number and by percent. And where most of those prisoners are in jail for non-violent drug offences, i.e. deviancy.
      • Let me preface this comment by saying that I agree with your sentiment - the US imprisons way too many non-violent offenders.

        That said, we're talking about China here. They execute drug offenders, so it's probably not worth comparing their incarceration rate to ours. I mean, they are KILLING their non-violent offenders.
    • 16 hours straight on the internet IS a psychological (mental) disorder. His parents provided help which took a harsh (to some, ok - to the other) turn.
      • "16 hours straight on the internet IS a psychological (mental) disorder."

        Whew....thank God they didn't say someone watching that much TV in a day was a mental disorder.

        I'd have been locked up a few times after a couple of boring weekend days with nothing much else to do.....although, I did have the computer on they whole time??

        Damn...mixing media could be worse???

        :-)

  • This obviously works quite well (Score:5, Funny)

    by thousandinone ( 918319 ) on Tuesday February 27, 2007 @11:39AM (#18168000) Journal
    From TFA: "Sun looks forward to returning to school and getting on with his life. The first task on his agenda when he gets home: Get online. He needs to tell his worried Internet friends where he was these past few weeks." Obviously he is totally cured of his "internet addiction..."
    • Yeah, that kind of treatment seems like it'll cause more problems than it'll help.

      I like the comments from Tao in there. He seems to have a better idea on how to handle the situation, I hope he gets a chance to try his way.

      In plain english: to get them off the internet, we gotta get them laid.

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by Reziac ( 43301 ) *
        I agree about Tao. Whatever is wrong with the rest of the program, this guy obviously groks that "internet addiction" is a symptom of deeper issues, not an isolated syndrome in itself.

        • I'm not sure, but the article seems to place him more as an independant (or competative) critic, rather than a part of the program.

          • Re: (Score:2)

            by Reziac ( 43301 ) *
            I got the impression that he works within the program, but with considerable independence to do things his own way. Regardless, he sounds like he has his act together, and hopefully he'll be a good influence.

  • Just a thought (Score:5, Insightful)

    by andy314159pi ( 787550 ) on Tuesday February 27, 2007 @11:40AM (#18168004) Journal
    Spending 15 hours on the internet at a time might be a normal reaction to living in an extremely oppressive society.
    • Well, you could always take Lunesta, the drug to calm the restless mind... But by the same token, with all the shit going on in the world today, it's the people who aren't restless who have problems.

    • Re: (Score:3, Insightful)

      by andreasg ( 1010787 )
      Living in an oppressive society doesn't prevent meaningful social relationships with other humans. While you might be able to discuss your hopes and thoughts on the society freely on the internet, I doubt that was what he used his 15 hours a day for. China is known to have a lot of problems with online gaming, for example the Chinese version of World of Warcraft limits the playing time each day.
      • Living in an oppressive society certainly does affect your social relationships. You cannot talk about any activities that deviate from the norm (like obsessive gaming) for fear of being reported. You cannot ask for help or show illness for fear of being ground under the wheel of the system. You cannot find others with whom you might relate, because they're all hiding as well.

        Think of how a satanist or pedophile might feel, living in America today. That's how a gamer (or democrat!) lives in China. Wher

    • Comment removed (Score:4, Insightful)

      by account_deleted ( 4530225 ) on Tuesday February 27, 2007 @11:55AM (#18168212)
      Comment removed based on user account deletion

      • Re: (Score:3, Insightful)

        by Maxo-Texas ( 864189 )
        And notice even in the darkest days of the 1950's in the US, folks didn't think it was that bad. The only people who saw problems were subversives and commies.

        Thank god for the baby boom- at least it blew things loose for a little while but now I fear the aging baby boom is going to get really repressive.

        • Thank god for the baby boom- at least it blew things loose for a little while but now I fear the aging baby boom is going to get really repressive.

          No, don't thank those narcissistic prigs. They are the ones who felt this lack of a *good war* for their generation and got us into the current situation: a war that makes Vietnam look like patticakes.

          The boomers are the least generation. The most empowered and enfranchised in history and look what they have bequeathed us. It was Roethke said: I was ne

      • Notice how even in the darkest days of the [United States] the average person didn't think things were that bad, asserting even that people who saw problems were subversives or nutjobs, and today many people look back on such times fondly.

        Indeed.
    • My living in a democracy must be why I've only done 8 hr sessions.
    • Chinese life isn't quite the same as the US's propoganda evidently has made you believe. Even if the government sucks, it's not like it gets in the way of daily activities. People generally have happy, productive lives, with concerns that are essentially identical to what they would be in the US. 15 hours a day on the Internet is unhealthy & indicates a mental problem, just as it does in the US.

      Or would you care to explain yourself further?

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by Knara ( 9377 )

        I spend about 15 hours a day "on the internet" (whatever that vague statement means), yet I excel at my job and get A's in my classes that I take after work.

        So I guess the question is, how do you define "on the internet". Is web-surfing from a phone the same as 5 hours on WoW? They both meet the description. Does surfing the web on my laptop while watching a movie count as 2 hours of being "on the internet"? The phrase is basically meaningless the way you've decided to use it.

    • I call BS. In this "extremely oppresive" society youth might have more economic possibilities (given the healthy rate of economical growth in China compared to developed world) than analogous group in US or Europe.
    • Spending 15 hours on the internet at a time might be a normal reaction to living in an extremely oppressive society.

      I spend 15h online daily.. I never knew Canada was oppressive. But it must be true.

  • Tagged: excessive (Score:5, Insightful)

    by WillDraven ( 760005 ) on Tuesday February 27, 2007 @11:41AM (#18168018) Homepage
    Seriously, I understand how internet addiction can take over your life, but being put in a penal institution is not the answer. And mapping out your life until you're 84? You've just had something else take over your life instead. Not much of an improvement in my opinion.

    • Re:Tagged: excessive (Score:5, Funny)

      by grub ( 11606 ) <slashdot@grub.net> on Tuesday February 27, 2007 @11:48AM (#18168094) Homepage Journal

      And mapping out your life until you're 84? You've just had something else take over your life instead. Not much of an improvement in my opinion.

      His life plan:

      Age 17-23: School
      Age 23-84: Work in factory making crap for WalMart.

    • Oh that's silly. We've managed to replace a dangerous, degenerative addiction with a close association to the party and it's principles. Surely these will serve him well for the rest of his life. Thank goodness we have the techniques to help these individuals see the benefits of full party support!



      Reminds me of 1984, they always love the party in the end.

    • I wonder what his 85th birthday party will be like.

  • China is right to take this seriously (Score:3, Funny)

    by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday February 27, 2007 @11:42AM (#18168038)
    Many of these internet addictions lead to suffering a bullet-related death.

  • Before we get all high and mighty (Score:5, Insightful)

    by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday February 27, 2007 @11:42AM (#18168040)

    This reminds me of the drug treatment programs where teens were incarcerated in the US. They were much more popular in the late 80s and early 90s. The one we had locally, "Straight, Inc." used to advertise on TV all the time. There were cases of kids getting caught with a joint once and being sent there, mixed in with hardcore addicts and becoming more addicted off stuff smuggled in. Either that, or they were just isolated and abused. These companies were scandalized and faded into the background, AFAIK they may still be there.

    • It's not just kids (Score:2, Interesting)

      by Wrexs0ul ( 515885 )
      This is a raging debate in modern penal and support systems about whether the punishment/treatment does more harm than good. I'm sure you've heard someone say before that sending a first-time offender to prison only connects them with hardened, experienced criminals to learn from, and that's often the case. When inmates get out of prison they're not penitent for their crimes: they're smarter about how not to get caught next time.

      On the other hand how can we address problems like this? Some people need monit

    • Re:Before we get all high and mighty (Score:4, Interesting)

      by WolfWalker545 ( 960367 ) on Tuesday February 27, 2007 @12:24PM (#18168640)
      Oh, they're still there. They've expanded beyond drug treatment claims to include 'behavior issues', but aren't staffed or licensed to deal with either. They usually get around that by claiming to be boarding schools, but then they frequently don't meet the licensing requirements to be schools, either. They now call themselves Therapeutic Boarding Schools for 'troubled teens'. If you look at the tactics they use for dealing with the kids, most of them fit in with what I was taught about brainwashing in North Korean and Vietnamese POW camps. It's no real surprise that a lot of the survivors of these programs wind up displaying PTSD later. A friend was sent to one of these places basically because she had problems getting along with her stepfather, one of her classmates there committed suicide not long ago (and it's certainly messed her up some, but she's coming to deal with it. Of course, one of the issues between her and her stepfather is that she's attracted to other women...)
  • "Bender, what are you doing in the bathroom? Are you jacking on in there?"

  • Holy Fsck! (Score:4, Insightful)

    by Penguinisto ( 415985 ) on Tuesday February 27, 2007 @11:47AM (#18168086) Journal
    Okay - I understand that sometimes a kid can get more than just a little involved with computers (Hell, I remember a period of time as an ADULT when I spent nearly every waking non-work hour online playing Quake or Counter-Strike), but like anyone, they get past it, they move on.

    If it starts to be an actual detriment (not eating, not sleeping, etc), okay - I can see the need for intervention. Still, this one makes me queasy a bit.

    Why? Well, what about the requirements to be declared "addicted"? Isn't there a danger that safeguards could be tossed, and it would eventually boil down to just someone else's subjective opinion? Hell of a way to be got rid of in a hurry by a disgruntled low-level gov't worker, a pissed-off friend, etc. Anywhere else on the planet okay - I could understand that there would be a due process. But in a country which still prosecutes (and I quote) "hooliganism" (which can mean whatever they want it to mean), and lock dissidents up for years on end? Sounds like just an updated and modernized excuse to shut up anyone who makes the gov't feel uncomfortable.

    /P

  • This is intense (Score:3, Interesting)

    by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday February 27, 2007 @11:48AM (#18168110)
    I went to treatment when I was younger (for drugs), we had five year plans and such. We had a rating system where you're level 1-3 (for outpatient, level 4 is mandatory inpatient). Then if you had a serious drug addiction to say heroin you could by rights take an option to farm pigs in Alaska as a treatment option. We considered this rather extreme and was usually scheduled for 6-12 months. My addiction at 19 was a six year addiction to pot, meth, alcohol, lsd, mushrooms, cocaine, and opium (ordered by preference). Because, I didn't have any felonies I was considered a level 3 maximum outpatient required. This kid is worse off than the pig farmers for playing video games? I don't really get it and planning out to the age of 84 seems to be a setup for failure, I seem to think he's just trying to stay off of the 3rd floor.

  • Compulsive behavior is not bad--just the Internet? (Score:5, Insightful)

    by liam193 ( 571414 ) * on Tuesday February 27, 2007 @11:51AM (#18168152)

    Thanks to his parent's intervention and the treatment, he now has life mapped out until he's 84.


    Okay, let me get this straight. "Thanks to his parent's intervention and the treatment, he now has [replaced one compulsive behavior for another]." The need to organize your life 50+ years into the future is not far from the compulsion to spend 15 hours a day on the Internet. In fact, I would maintain that it is potentially a more destructive behavior.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by dave562 ( 969951 )
      The need to organize your life 50+ years into the future is not far from the compulsion to spend 15 hours a day on the Internet. In fact, I would maintain that it is potentially a more destructive behavior.

      This seems like a good enough place to comment.

      I too latched onto that notion of having his life planned out far into the future. I think that it might be a cultural thing for the Chinese. I study a Chinese (Daoist) martial art. My sifu has been training the art since he was 6. A few times a year he

  • Pathologizing dissent (Score:3, Interesting)

    by Brunellus ( 875635 ) on Tuesday February 27, 2007 @11:51AM (#18168160) Homepage

    Would seem to fit into the PRC's pattern of taking 'deviant' thought and pathologizing it. Now, instead of re-education camps, internet 'addicted' youths are treated with all the care and compassion the Party can muster.

    I'll bet my last yuan renminbi that this will be used to lock up bloggers and other people with similar internet 'addictions.' Surely you must be addicted if your jones for information has you circumventing the Great Firewall of China, right?

  • Internet addiction? (Score:4, Insightful)

    by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday February 27, 2007 @11:52AM (#18168170)
    Saying "Internet Addiction" is like saying "Ethernet addiction". It means nothing.

    What is this guy doing for 15 hours? Is he chatting with friends? Young kids spend hours on the telephone before and this wasn't telephone addiction. Sure communication is better now, but simple chat rooms existed for modem users 20+ years ago. Nothing new there either.

    Is this guy playing games? Is he gambling? Is he looking at porn? Is he sending emails? What is he doing for 15 hours?

    The point being, the action that this person is doing online is what they are addicted to, not the network access. If you are addicted to looking at porn or playing games, for example, then that is the issue not "the Internet".

    What about kids who play their playstation for hours and hours on end? Is this and addiction?

    The bottom line is "the internet made me do it" is just another excuse.

  • Sun found himself spending 15 hours or straight on the internet.

    Pah! Lightweight! Sure, he's got to sleep four or five hours per night, but what's he doing with the rest of the time?

  • A Clockwork Internet (Score:4, Insightful)

    by Helmholtz ( 2715 ) on Tuesday February 27, 2007 @12:00PM (#18168278) Homepage
    Alex:
    You needn't take it any further, sir. You've proved to me that all this gold farming and internets is wrong, wrong, and terribly wrong. I've learned me lesson, sir. I've seen now what I've never seen before. I'm cured! Praise god!
    Dr. Brodsky:
    You're not cured yet, boy.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by metlin ( 258108 ) *
      Spot on.

      That's exactly the thing that came to my mind. Dystopia, here I come. Oh, sorry. Dystopia, here I am.

  • Alternatives (Score:3, Insightful)

    by moore.dustin ( 942289 ) on Tuesday February 27, 2007 @12:02PM (#18168322) Homepage
    Internet addiction really boils down to needing to fill a need. People are often drawn to a certain area of the internet for whatever reason(most likely a personal interest in something), and then become connected to the community that they found there(anonymity makes it easy). If it were not for the social networks and communities online, what would people really have to do to consume that much time a day? Sure, exceptions are around where people do just that, but as for your everyday John Doe, he would not be able to fill that time without the online communities.

    The social aspect found online is the root of most internet addiction. Once people are able to fill the need to social interaction online, they are much more prone to addiction. Think of all the WOW addicts out there - They are almost all addicted to the social community, not the game itself.

    To curb this addiction, you need to present alternative to the addicted person which would fill the void being created by unplugging. These people will have to get that social interaction offline, but that is easier said than done for many. They may be shy, sheltered, socially inept, or any combinations of things which yield a socially awkward person. If an alternative cannot be presented to fulfill the need for social contact which is inviting and easily available, these people trying to cure an internet addiction are doomed to relapse over and over again.
  • - and making a career out of it through programming. Ah, also im meeting various capable professionals, colleagues, crazy gamers, noticeably high i.q. women.

    And what those parents were wanting their children to do in future for a living - pottery ?

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by TheLink ( 130905 )
      Hey, those Chinese kids have to get off their butts, stop messing with "the internet" and start getting low paying jobs in factories to make stuff for Walmart so that the US people can keep buying it with money they don't have, that was borrowed from banks. Money that's printed by the Feds, backed by bonds bought by the Central Bank of China (and the Bank of Japan).

      I hope you understand it's a pretty delicate situation, if too many Chinese kids and other people don't do the "right thing", the whole scheme c

  • Ulterior Motive (Score:5, Insightful)

    by KermodeBear ( 738243 ) on Tuesday February 27, 2007 @12:03PM (#18168336) Homepage
    I believe that China takes internet 'addiction', or usage of it at all, very seriously because of the access to information it provides. Information that China would rather censor. This is a perfect excuse to indoctrinate.
    • That does not make sense to me. I would not expect a boy who spends 15 hours a day on the Internet to be the next MLK as the result of his addiction. Nah, they just treat it as a disease because of their strong collectivist inclinations. On their view, people who are useless to the state should be re-educated; it may be unpleasant to the individual, but the individual is nothing aprat from the state.
    • Don't you know what those young kids in China do online or you are simply afraid to see what you see? P0rn and WoW.
  • laid out in Orwell's 1984! What a coincidence!
  • I'm reminded of Ghost In the Shell: Stand-Alone Complex (the anime series), in which a secretive group treats kids with a form of Internet addiction. The treatment actually consists of using them to create and crack security codes.

  • Internet? Or Online games? (Score:3, Insightful)

    by TheGreatGraySkwid ( 553871 ) on Tuesday February 27, 2007 @12:26PM (#18168662) Homepage
    All the stories I've seen on this have just used the vague tag "Internet Addiction," but it seems like most of the individual stories I've seen described involve addiction to an online strategy or RPG game of one sort or another. This imprecision bugs me intensely, since addiction to online gaming seems like quite a different beast from, say, /. addiction.

    Has anyone seen accounts of "addiction" that weren't gaming related?
  • So the ruling Chinese Communists fear the internet. What else is new?

    Basically the more time that people spend on the internet, the more likely they are to come across a source of unfiltered news and history about the actions of the Chinese Communist party. Since all communists and fascists rely on total control of news and information sources as part of their political control, it stands to reason that any access to an uncontrolled source of news and information would be a grounds for a diagnosis of menta
  • Um, there isn't a difference between socialist state, a police state, a religious state, or an athiest communist state. All the states want their citizens to be uniform and instinctively follow the behavior the governmental model demands. Thought control is fundmental to action action. If most of your population doesn't just think, but know that crimes are impossible to commit without either the state or god watching them, then most of your population will follow your dictates. You can actually ignore the .

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by TheLink ( 130905 )
      It's fortunate that most Democracies are nothing like that. Every citizen is an independent thinking individual. None of this evil communist conformist crap.

      After all, the Left-wing Party and Right-wing Party are poles apart. They are as different as the Good guys and the Bad guys in Pro Wrestling.

      How more obvious can it be. Left is on one side, Right is on the other side. Like the difference between the Communist Red corner and the Freedom Blue corner. Or the Axis of Evil and the Coalition of the Good!

      And

  • Here's an idea... (Score:2, Insightful)

    by kidcharles ( 908072 )
    Before sending him off to boot camp, maybe the parents could try taking away his computer. Or, here's another crazy thought, letting him go online for only 2 hours a day. If he goes to an internet cafe instead, regulate how often he can go outside the house. How did the solution to this problem become locking him up in a cage hundreds of miles from home?

  • Sun found himself spending 15 hours or straight on the internet

    In one way or another this guy needed help.

  • Propaganda. Propaganda. Propaganda. (Score:3, Funny)

    by Fantastic Lad ( 198284 ) on Tuesday February 27, 2007 @01:36PM (#18169598)
    Is this story true? Maybe. How would we know?

    And what difference does it make? Reporting this stuff is just another way to say, "The hobbits at the other end of the shire are sort of queer. i.e., Let's support our government in spending billions to create a cold war when we could otherwise get on with our lives. All this peace business is bad for the bottom line."

    Oooh. And the story comes direct from the Startribune news service. How shiek. They never report biased pre-fab crap because their bosses don't want to have the IRS come knocking or have their dog vanish or their job vaporize. Thank-you, the CIA. We love you ever so cuddly very much we do!


    -FL

  • So, basically, if I view too many democratically-oriented websites in China, the government can claim that I have a mental disorder and take me away. Brilliant.

    Even if they don't do this, limiting people's Internet access should help avoid having lots of Chinese people being edu^H^H^Hindoctrinated by "foreigners".

  • Boot camps for kids don't work (Score:3, Informative)

    by ndogg ( 158021 ) <the.rhorn@NoSPAm.gmail.com> on Tuesday February 27, 2007 @01:57PM (#18169916) Homepage Journal
    I remember some places here in the US trying similar such boot camps for troubled teens, and to my knowledge they didn't work [reason.com].
  • Trying to put an inherently chaotic thing (humanity) (and chaotic does not mean disorderly) in a nice square box and expecting it to work is an example of pure stupidity.
    Nothing in existence that is highly orderly lasts very long. Highly ordered things decay and break down quickly.
    Perhaps China is on the same place in its timeline Soviet Russia was when it diagnosed many with "Sluggishly Progressing Schizophrenia" (a 'disease' they could diagnose anyone with) and put them in "psych wards" (read: hell).

    There

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