March 28, 2007	Wednesday	Rabi-ul-Awwal 8, 1428

BEIJING: Knees shaking, Chen Cheng explains why his parents have sent him to a clinic for internet addicts.

The 17-year-old high school student was a superman in cyberspace — once spending three days and nights playing online games, uninterrupted by meals or sleep.

But he paid the price offline.

“I had no sense of achievement from anything I did in the physical world,” the bespectacled youth said.

Here at the internet Addiction Treatment Centre in Beijing’s south-eastern suburb of Daxing, he is put through a strict regimen that might as well be boot camp — and for good reason, since this is an army-run clinic inside a military district.

The 20-odd teenagers at the centre, all placed here involuntarily by their families, get up at 6:30 am for long days of physical training and team sports, mixed with quiet therapy sessions with psychiatrists.

In one room inside the bleak barracks-style building, more serious cases are treated with low-voltage electrical jolts via pins inserted into the skin according to the prescriptions of traditional Chinese medicine.

“Not everyone has to do this, but we suggest it for patients who have serious problems with sleep,” said Wang Yanbin, a doctor who was carefully monitoring that the electrical current does not exceed safe levels.

“We apply this three to five times over a ten-day period, and the results are usually very good.” The primary purpose of it all: to isolate the patients from the internet, which so far has been an overwhelming influence on their lives.

“Some of the kids here live in another world. They assume the role of kings or wizards. To use a Western expression, their soul has left for the other side,” said Tao Ran, the centre's founder and director.

The centre is one of an estimated 30 clinics scattered across China that have been set up to deal with internet addiction, a growing problem in a country with 137 million online users.

The price for a month-long stay at the Beijing centre is nearly 10,000 yuan (1,300 dollars), or a year’s salary for many Chinese, and only a tiny minority can send their children for treatment here.

Internet addiction among teenagers has become a social problem, the state-run Xinhua news agency said recently.

It cited a recent survey showing that 33.5 per cent of juvenile delinquency cases in the Beijing area — including rape and robbery — were linked to excessive time spent on games.

“It is common to see students from primary and middle schools lingering in internet bars overnight, puffing on cigarettes and engrossed in online games,” Yu Wen, a lawmaker, told Xinhua.

The Beijing clinic, which was China’s first when it opened in late 2004, has treated more than 1,500 people aged from 14 to 36, and claims to have a 70 per cent success rate.

The clinic is relatively strict during the first ten days. Doors and windows are locked.

“Some of the patients go nuts when they realise they can’t leave,” said Guan Peihong, a 17-year-old high school student from northeast China’s Heilongjiang province. “They scream and shout that they want to get out.” Later during their stay, the patients are allowed outside on small errands.

But this privilege is sometimes abused.

Not long ago a group of four youngsters were taken out by a staff member but ran away, only to be discovered later in an internet cafe, according to Tao.

When that happens, the clinic responds by putting the patients in a room equipped with just a bed and a desk.

It’s not the same as locking them up,” said Tao.

Tao is optimistic the problem can be solved and he is eager to emphasise that he is not on a crusade against the internet.—AFP