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In China, Internet addiction is something very serious and the way to deal with it is completely unbelievable. Shocking pictures of the Daxing Internet Addiction Treatment Center (IATC) have emerged in recent days on the web. Close-up on this very special camp!
Military-style boot-camp
Young people who pass through the doors of this centre are confronted with exercises worthy of a military regime: medical treatments and confinement periods are on the agenda. Technology in all its forms is completely banned. We are far from the digital detox treatments as we know them in the United States and Europe! Beyond this very restrictive schedule, patients often undergo psychiatric tests and, hold on tightly to scanners to make sure that everything is going well in their heads and that they stay on the right track.
An amazing success
This detox centre has treated 6,000 patients since it opened in 2006 and claims to have "healed" 75% of them. After 6 months of isolation in this centre, patients use the Internet less than 6 hours a day. This figure may sound very high for us, but obviously they were leaving from far away!
There is a very strong demand for this very brutal treatment centre, but the most amazing is the price! Nearly €1,400 per month, which is double the average wage in the country. Excessively expensive, therefore, especially when you know what you're going to endure when you walk through the doors of this centre.
Digital addiction in China
Whether it is the Internet or any other form of technology, addiction affects 24 million users in China out of a total of 632 million users, according to the Chinese government. In the majority of cases, they are young men who are addicted to MMOG (massively multiplayer online games).
The centre's founder, a doctor and colonel in the army, says that 90% of patients arrive at the centre suffering from depression as a result of time spent online (up to 14 hours a day!).
In order to learn more about this extremely brutal treatment center, Arte offers a report not to be missed. Watch your eyes!
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