I knew that teenagers are reliant on the Internet, and I also knew some kids formed an addiction to the Internet. I had no idea the crazy addiction problem for teens in China. It is also shocking to me that they have bootcamps that were created to specifically to ween teens off their addiction. But even more shocking is the addict who was beaten to death at one of these camps. It is worth noting that 90% of the children attending these "schools" do not know they are attending because of their obsession with the Internet. The specific school was Beiteng in Changsha, capital of central China's Hunan province. The teen was Chen Shi, only 16 years old. It is obvious that their Internet addiction problem is serious, but I could never imagine a bootcamp for this in the U.S. When these teens are shipped off for semesters, their own parents are unable to be in contact with them. All this is the name of too much Internet? There needs to be alternative ways to combat Internet addiction. The ideas of programs getting teens active, outside, and social is great, however beating a child because they did not run is clearly not the best route here. I think the problem is that Internet addiction is somewhat new and we haven't quite figured out how to treat and prevent it. Sara Lester
Wow
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