Chinese police have reported that they are investigating claims that a 16-year-old was beaten to death by supervisors at a rehabilitation camp for Internet addicts.
Deng Senshan’s parents paid $1000 for him to be treated for Internet addiction at Guangxi Qihuang Survival Training Camp. Soon after arriving, Deng was placed in solitary confinement. Later, it is alleged that supervisors beat the boy to death for “running too slowly.”
The Internet addiction treatment industry has been the source of controversy in the country. After it came to public attention that at least one practitioner, Doctor “Uncle” Yang Yongxin, had been using a therapy combination that included electro-shock treatment (EST), psychotropic drugs and boot camp style exercises, the government began cracking down on some of the more outlandish treatment techniques. The use of EST is now banned; beatings, however, presumably still take place.
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The title picture is from an Internet bootcamp, it is not necessarily from the Guangxi Qihuang Survival Training Camp where this incident took place.
