16-year-old Deng Senshan died after being beaten to death during "treatment" at an internet addiction camp found in Nanning.
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Three guards (who are now detained) apparently beat the boy for "running too slowly," despite the camp promising that it uses no techniques that might compromise a visitor's health. His father had paid the camp $1,024 for Deng Senshan's treatment.
According to Time, there are hundreds of such camps in China. This is the first reported death from an internet addiction facility. [Global Times via WSJ via The Raw Feed]
DISCUSSION
Um... there is an excerpt from the Time magazine article that says this:
"Tao Ran, director of the Beijing treatment center and a colonel in the People's Liberation Army (PLA), helped come up with a strict definition of Internet addiction last fall: consecutive usage of the Web for 6 hr. a day for three straight months is addiction."
I'm pretty sure many "normal" people around the world qualify for this definition. Come to think of it, this Internet Addiction Camp idea seems like a great business model. $1024 per person is a lot of money in China, and it sounds like all you need to do is get some ex-Army guys to yell at the kids and beat them a bit.