Chinese teenager dies in internet rehab camp

Boot camps that claim to treat addictions to gaming and the internet have proliferated in China (file picture). Photo / Getty

By Frank Hersey

A teenager has died within two days of entering an internet addiction camp, marking the latest tragedy at the hands of one of China's harsh addiction treatment centres.

Eighteen-year-old Li Ao was found to have over 20 external injuries as well as internal injuries, according to state media, though the exact cause of death is unknown.

After various attempts at controlling his time spent online, Li's parents sent him earlier this month to an internet addiction treatment camp in Fuyang city in Anhui province, a poor region in eastern China.

The camp claimed to use "gentle treatment" - psychological counselling and physical training - and promised there was no use of corporal punishment.

But within 48 hours of their son's arrival, the parents were told he had been taken into hospital where he later died. His parents were allowed to see his body. The cause of death is currently unclear.

Li's parents had tried encouraging their son to set up a business, join the army, go travelling - without success.

As with many other parents in China concerned about the amount of time their children spend online, their last resort was a treatment centre.

They told the teachers their son was particularly tough when they dropped him off.

Boot camps that claim to treat addictions to gaming and the internet have proliferated in China.

They tend to present themselves as using military tactics to discipline the addicts. Some have been known to use electric shocks on the inmates.

This camp in Fuyang city was an illegal operation and had been ordered to close on multiple occasions by the local education authorities.

After this incident the local government shut it down. The school's management and four instructors were detained by police and an investigation is under way.

In 2009 the Ministry of Health recognised internet addiction and called for a stop to barbaric treatments such as physical restraint.

This year the government drafted laws which could ban the use of specific treatments such as electric shocks.