China battles Internet addiction

Pallavi Aiyar
The Hindu, 9 May

The number of Internet users rose from virtually zero in the 1990s to 137 million by the end of 2006. Of these at least 15 per cent are under the age of 18; and 2.3 million minors could be classified as addicts.

IN A nondescript compound on the southern outskirts of Beijing, groups of youngsters in military fatigues run in disciplined lines, sweat pouring down their foreheads in the noon sun. Drill sergeants bark relentless orders right in their faces, which on closer inspection are revealed to be painfully young. Inside the combat outfits many of those marching, running, and performing a variety of callisthenics are only 13 or 14 years old.

This is a military training camp, but the youngsters in question are not soldiers in training. They are in fact Internet addicts receiving treatment at a government-funded, military-run Internet Addiction Treatment Centre, located in Beijing's Daxing County.

Alarmed by a China National Children's Centre (CNCC) report that claimed 13 per cent of Internet users under the age of 18 were addicted to the Net, online addiction has emerged as the focus of a concerted campaign by the Chinese Government to battle what the Communist Youth League calls "a grave social problem" that threatens the nation. The number of Internet users in China has spiked from virtually zero in the 1990s to 137 million by the end of 2006. Of these at least 15 per cent are under the age of 18 and, on the basis of the CNCC report, 2.3 million minors would be classified as addicts.

In the last few months, local media in China have been awash with highly publicised cases of obsessed Internet game players flunking out of school with some committing suicide and even murder. In 2005, a Shanghai court gave an online gamer a life sentence after he was found guilty of stabbing a competitor to death for stealing his cyber-sword — a virtual prize earned during game-play.

More recently, in March, China's official news agency Xinhua, quoted a Beijing Reformatory for Juvenile Delinquents report stating that almost 35 per cent of its detainees were "goaded into committing crimes, mostly robbery and rape, by violent online games or erotic websites."

The Daxing addiction treatment centre is the first and largest of eight government-funded "rehabilitation camps" set up around the country, intended to address the special needs of juvenile Internet addicts. On average, the centre houses 70-80 patients, although during school vacations, the number of its wards can shoot up to 250.

The majority of the patients are 14 to 18 years old, although the youngest to have been treated at the centre was 11. Ninety per cent are male and, according to Tao Ran, the centre's director, most are addicted to online games although Internet chat, online pornography, and gambling have also been known to cause addictive behaviour.

The centre is part military boot camp, part hospital, and part juvenile detention centre. Treatment consists of a mixture of psychological counselling, drugs, and military-style discipline. Mr. Tao says the centre can boast of a 70 per cent success rate with most patients needing a one to three-month-long course of treatment.

The treatment period can however be tumultuous since the majority of addicts are involuntarily committed to the centre by their parents. The dormitory areas are thus cordoned off with prison-style metal grills and hefty padlocks. In the past patients have tried to escape. One even slashed his wrists, although quick intervention saved him.

Given its relatively recent origins, the nature of Internet addiction remains somewhat of a global controversy. At issue is whether or not heavy Internet use should be defined and treated as a mental disorder. Mr. Tao, who built his career treating heroine addicts in the 1990s, has little patience for such debate. He says that having researched and treated a variety of addictions both physical and psychological over two decades he is convinced that Internet addiction is virtually the same as other types of more conventional addictions both in terms of its symptoms as well as the negative impact it has on the addict's ability to function normally in society.

Thus if deprived of the Internet, addicts can quickly turn nasty and resort to theft and violence in order to secure money for use in Internet bars. In addition, they often stop eating and sleeping for days at a stretch causing serious harm to their health.

Mr. Tao says the patients brought to the clinic usually suffer from a mixture of anger, loss of self-esteem, depression, bad nutrition, insomnia, and lack of self-control. The military discipline at the centre helps them to regain a schedule and builds up both their physical strength and mental discipline. The intensive counselling aims to gradually restore their self-confidence and to help them re-establish positive goals. Some 30 per cent of cases are additionally treated with drugs including anti-depressants and even anti-psychotics.

Unreasonable pressure

According to Mr. Tao, the underlying cause for this trend of rising cyber addiction is unreasonable pressure from parents and schools to excel in examinations. Unable to bear the constant criticism and expectations, youngsters come to depend on the Internet as an "escape" from real world stress.

"For me online games were an environment that I could control and where there were no restrictions placed on my freedom," recalls Sun Qian Han, a 24-year-old patient at the Daxingcentre.

Mr. Sun began to play Internet games in 1998. In the beginning, he spent only three or four hours a day online but gradually his addiction grew to uncontrollable proportions. In 1999 he spent three months non-stop at an Internet Café, sleeping three or four hours at most, playing games for 20 hours at a time.

An excellent student, Mr. Sun dropped out of school although with his parents' support he finally managed to graduate in 2005, four years later than his contemporaries. He is currently enrolled at a Polytechnic in Yunnan province but every few months finds himself sliding back towards an online binge. He thus voluntarily checked himself into the Daxing Centre two weeks ago, although his parents foot the $1,200 monthly fee.

Steps to curb addiction

Over the last two months or so the government has announced a host of measures it says are aimed at curbing Internet addiction. These include an ordinance issued in March banning the opening of any new Internet bars in the country for the remainder of the year. In addition, Net bar owners have been ordered to install anti-addiction software on their computers and to be extra vigilant in collecting information on users including their real names, age, and identity card numbers.

Critics have pointed out that this campaign meshes a bit too conveniently with China's broader efforts to control the Internet. Access to many major online international news sites are blocked in China and some 50,000 personnel are employed to monitor Internet traffic, censoring information that is deemed too politically sensitive by the government.

But Mr. Sun believes the new measures will be helpful, if implemented strictly. His worry is that most Net bar owners put profit first and are thus loathe to turn underage users away or to implement any regulations that would be detrimental to their business. "All of us addicts are above average in our IQ," he says towards the end of the interview. "But our talents and energy are wasted by this addiction." Mr. Sun intends to stay on at the centre for another few weeks before heading back to his college in Yunnan. He is studying to be a software engineer.