Others deny the addiction and insist the symptoms represent a "lack of self-control" or "just naughty behavior."
Kiwi Liu, 17, is an addict, but her mother, a middle school mathematics teacher, didn't realize it at first, though she recognized the problem in many of her students.
Huang knows her students escape school to go to Internet cafes. She called their parents and blamed them for not taking good care of their children. She urged them: "Train your child in self-control."
It was not until this summer that Huang found her own daughter chatting online all day long almost every day. In order to break the Internet habit, she drew up a strict schedule for Liu, forcing her to go to sleep early, get up early, do chores, physical exercise and attend English classes.
"I don't think Internet addiction is a disease that you can't control. It's the same as talking loudly in classes, playing hooky from school or not doing homework. It's the kind of behavioral problem that can be solved by self-control and discipline," says teacher Huang.
"I don't think these young people are emotionally ill," she adds.
Huang is typical of many people who are unwilling to consider their children "ill" or requiring special treatment in clinics.
Tao Ran, director of China's first Internet addiction clinic under Beijing's Military General Hospital, has long insisted that the addiction is a kind of mental illness (in the broad sense) that needs medical treatment, not military training or lectures. Since 2005 he has treated more than 5,000 patients.
Although many experts have been calling for specific laws, regulations and guidelines on the problem, so far there is nothing official. There is no internationally accepted standard definition or treatment, as individual cases vary. All kinds of 'therapies' China has more than 300 Internet addition treatment facilities and camps that use a wide range of therapies. Some used to treat drug addicts and employ similar treatment methods.
In-patient treatment may cost up to 8,000 yuan (US$1,170) for a month's stay; two to three months' treatment are common.
One of the most common treatments is rehabilitation camp that adopts strict military training and discipline. Addicts go cold-turkey.
Schedules are tough: rising around 6am, two to three hours of jogging or strenuous exercise, manual labor in the afternoon, military training, then early to bed. Some camps reportedly hired retired soldiers to train patients. One Internet rehab institution in Jiangxi Province, targeting students with violent tendencies, uses long-distance walking. Patients trek from one city to another, in freezing winter or steaming summer. The idea is to exhaust them so they have no time or energy to think about the Internet.
Many facilities in Sichuan Province, and elsewhere, use hypnosis and acupuncture to treat addiction.
Some approaches use traditional Chinese Taoist values, setting up treatment centers in beautiful natural settings, teaching patients to appreciate the idea of emptiness and doing nothing.
Although electroshock therapy has been banned, other electric pulse therapies administer a milder, low-frequency current.
(Shanghai Daily September 24, 2009)
