<nettime> [ciresearchers] FW: [TriumphOfContent] Chinese internet addicts stage mutiny at boot camp

[Alan Sondheim <sondheim@panix.com>]

---------- Forwarded message ----------
Date: Tue, 31 Aug 2010 20:35:14
From: Michael Gurstein <gurstein@gmail.com>
Reply-To: ciresearchers@vancouvercommunity.net,
    Michael Gurstein <gurstein@gmail.com>
To: ciresearchers@vancouvercommunity.net
Subject: [ciresearchers] FW: [TriumphOfContent] Chinese internet addicts 
stage
    mutiny at boot camp

??
-----Original Message-----
From: TriumphOfContent@yahoogroups.com
[mailto:TriumphOfContent@yahoogroups.com] On Behalf Of Anjana Basu
Sent: Wednesday, June 09, 2010 12:11 AM
To: Triumph Content
Subject: [TriumphOfContent] Chinese internet addicts stage mutiny at boot
camp

??

http://technology.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/tech_and_web/article7145877.ec
eFrom??Times Online
June 8, 2010
             Chinese internet addicts stage mutiny at boot camp

Jane Macartney, Beijing

Fourteen young detainees overcame their guard and fled a boot camp regime of
physical training and psychological treatment designed to cure their
addiction ? to the internet.

The group, aged 15 to 22, staged their mass breakout by grabbing a duty
supervisor when he was in bed and immobilising him in his quilt.

He shouted for help and they apologised before tying him up. They then made
their way in groups of three to the home town of the leader of the group.

The addicts made their break from the Huai?an Internet Addiction Treatment
Centre in eastern Jiangsu province last Wednesday, complaining that they
could no longer endure its ?monotonous work and intensive training?.

It is the latest incident to highlight the sometimes brutal techniques
employed at camps across China to wean young people off the internet. A
15-year-old boy was beaten to death last year days after he was admitted to
a camp. Last month a court sentenced two instructors to up to ten years in
jail for the incident.

The China Youth Association for Network Development estimates that about 24
million Chinese adolescents are addicted to the internet, many to gaming
sites.

For the recent escapees freedom proved short lived. A taxi driver alerted
police after the young men were unable to pay the fare. There was little
sympathy from their exasperated parents either, who had paid 18,000 yuan
(?1,830) for their children to receive six months? treatment at the camp.

Most insisted that their children should go back to the camp at once and
since the breakout all but one have been returned.

One mother wept at the police station when she described how her son once
spent 28 consecutive hours playing online games. A camp official justified
the methods used to cure the addiction, saying: ?We have to use military
style methods such as total immersion and physical training on these young
people. We need to teach them some discipline and help them to establish a
regular lifestyle.?

The camp requires its ?inmates? to be up at 5am and in bed at 9.30pm. During
the day they must undergo two hours of physical drills, as well as courses
in calligraphy, traditional Chinese philosophy and receive counselling.

Yang Guihua, the mother of the youth who orchestrated the escape, said that
her son must return and defended the treatment. She said: ?I don?t think
there is any problem with the training methods at the centre. They are for
my child?s own good.?

? China underscored its commitment to keeping a tight grip on the internet
yesterday, vowing in a new White Paper to block anything deemed subversive
or a threat to national unity.

It said that it wanted to boost internet usage to 45 per cent of the
population in the next five years but gave no indication that it would ease
the Great Firewall, which blocks websites such as Facebook, YouTube and
Twitter.


http://technology.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/tech_and_web/article7145877.ec
e

____________________________________________________________________________
Chin music and high voltage T20 action on MSN Sports Sign up now.

__._,_.___
Reply to sender | Reply to group | Reply via web post | Start a New Topic
Messages in this topic (1)
Recent Activity:
Visit Your Group
Yahoo! Groups Switch to: Text-Only, Daily Digest * Unsubscribe * Terms of
Use
.
[nc3=3]
__,_._,___
!DSPAM:2676,4c0f3e94177551017968812!


#  distributed via <nettime>: no commercial use without permission
#  <nettime>  is a moderated mailing list for net criticism,
#  collaborative text filtering and cultural politics of the nets
#  more info: http://mail.kein.org/mailman/listinfo/nettime-l
#  archive: http://www.nettime.org contact: nettime@kein.org