NEWS: China Creates Anti Internet Media Frenzy

The youths are patients at China's first officially licensed clinic for Internet addiction, a downside of the online frenzy that has accompanied the nation's breathtaking economic boom.

"All the children here have left school because they are playing games or in chat rooms everyday," says the clinic's director, Dr. Tao Ran. "They are suffering from depression, nervousness, fear and unwillingness to interact with others, panic and agitation. They also have sleep disorders, the shakes and numbness in their hands."

The routine begins around 6 a.m. and includes sessions on a machine that stimulates nerve impulses with 30-volt charges to pressure points.

Some patients receive a clear fluid through intravenous drips said to "adjust the unbalanced status of brain secretions," according to one nurse. Officials would not give any other details about the medication.

MisterSatan said:
OMFG WE'RE ALL ADDICTED!!!!!!!

Seriously. This kind of thing sounds like my middle-aged roommate who's in Alcoholics Anonymous. To him, anything someone does for more than ten minutes at a time is "addictive behavior", even if you're sitting on the crapper. Not to mention that the internet is a recent phenomenon in China, compared to the rest of the world. Maybe they're just trying to catch up.

"All the children here have left school because they are playing games or in chat rooms everyday," says the clinic's director, Dr. Tao Ran.

"I wasn't normal," said a 20-year-old man from Beijing who used to spend at least 10 hours a day in front of the screen playing hack-and-slash games like Diablo.

The 12-year-old, a new arrival, spent four days in an Internet cafe, barely eating or sleeping.

A soft-spoken 21-year-old man from northeastern Heilongjiang province who had been in the clinic for 10 days said his addiction had helped him escape from family pressures about his studies.

"I would stay up for 24 hours. I would eat only in front of the computer," he said.

"They are suffering from depression, nervousness, fear and unwillingness to interact with others, panic and agitation. They also have sleep disorders, the shakes and numbness in their hands."

Shalome said:
So the Associated Press is now "Chinese propaganda"?

State media has also highlighted cases of obsessed Internet gamers, some of whom have flunked out of school, committed suicide or murder.

Shalome said:

Did you read the article?

Shalome said:
So, since China censors things, an Associated Press writer didn't talk to doctors and patients at the clinic and just published what China told them to?

China was to release a set of new rules to vet the content of online games as part of a campaign to combat their harmful influences on the young, State media said.

Under new rules drawn up by the Ministry of Culture and the Ministry of Information Industry to be released soon, game manufacturers were required to revise game rules that might lead to addiction, it said.

The two ministries will also recommend a number of healthy premium games endorsed by the government to youngsters during the summer vacation. Players of online games are mostly people under 35 years old, Zhang Xinjian, an official with the Ministry of Culture, was quoted as saying. These people are prone to the negative influences of sex, violence and other types of unhealthy content of online games.

The report quoted the example of a 13-year-old boy who leaped to his death from a 24-floor building in a flying posture, after leaving a note saying he was joining three friends, who were characters of an online game.

The Ministry of Culture has already banned 50 electronic games earlier this year, including FIFA Soccer 2005 and Microsoft's Age of Mythology.

The company plans to survey teenagers from 38 schools in 18 districts, together with the city's Communist Youth League, which oversees affairs for teenagers.

Shen Qiyun, a professor at Beijing Normal University, who has studied the influence on teenagers of such games since 2001, said that currently 80 per cent of computer games are imported from abroad, half of which are related to a "demon world," martial arts and violence, which are not healthy influences on teenagers.

The Information Times reported on February 23, 2005 that 30 percent of the marriage troubles in Guangzhou were caused by on-line love affairs.

Some judges from district courts of Changsha City, Hunan Province, believed that the on-line marriage has become a dangerous "killer" of marriage and families in real life.

Shalome said:

Did you read the article?

MisterSatan said:

No, I just wanted to bitch about my roommate.

Shalome said:

Understandable. Carry on.