A teenager died from multiple injuries just days after being dropped off at an Internet addiction treatment center:
A Chinese teenager has died days after he was sent to an internet addiction treatment centre, reigniting criticism of these controversial institutions. The 18-year-old had allegedly sustained multiple injuries, and the centre's director and staff members have been held by police, according to reports.
The incident took place earlier this month in eastern Anhui province. China has seen a proliferation in so-called "boot camps" aimed at treating internet and gaming addictions. Some are known for their military-style discipline and have been criticised for overly harsh practices.
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When Danny Reagan was 13, he began exhibiting signs of what doctors usually associate with drug addiction. He became agitated, secretive and withdrew from friends. He had quit baseball and Boy Scouts, and he stopped doing homework and showering.
But he was not using drugs. He was hooked on YouTube and video games, to the point where he could do nothing else. As doctors would confirm, he was addicted to his electronics.
"After I got my console, I kind of fell in love with it," Danny, now 16 and a junior in a Cincinnati high school, said. "I liked being able to kind of shut everything out and just relax."
Danny was different from typical plugged-in American teenagers. Psychiatrists say internet addiction, characterized by a loss of control over internet use and disregard for the consequences of it, affects up to 8 percent of Americans and is becoming more common around the world.
Show-e-ring? Is that some kind of connected device?
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(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday August 15 2017, @06:39AM (2 children)
Bet he has no spare lives left; (
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday August 15 2017, @07:04AM (1 child)
No, but he's been cured of his addiction.
(Score: 2) by bob_super on Tuesday August 15 2017, @04:57PM
I just want to know if they use a blue tarp with white lettering to cover patients whose uptime drop to 0.
(Score: 2, Disagree) by Runaway1956 on Tuesday August 15 2017, @07:11AM (5 children)
The kid failed to interact with his world in an appropriate manner to ensure his survival. Charles Darwin would have a few words to say on the subject.
(Score: 2) by c0lo on Tuesday August 15 2017, @07:30AM
Would you send your grandkids to such a camp?
Some further information to help your decision.
From the same FA, other parents... mmm.... failed to interact with their kids in an appropriate manner to ensure their survival
Perhaps something is actually out of order with those camps?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aoFiw2jMy-0 https://soylentnews.org/~MichaelDavidCrawford
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday August 15 2017, @07:50AM
Just like hundreds every day fail to adapt to car crashes. They die. #SOSAD
(Score: 2) by RamiK on Tuesday August 15 2017, @08:41AM (2 children)
Whose world and what "appropriate manner"? When you get stabbed in a robbery gone wrong is it your failure to adapt as well? Should you have bought a gun? Wore an armor? It's not a question of the law... After all, last I checked it was illegal to beat kids to death for spending too much time online...
compiling...
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday August 15 2017, @04:11PM (1 child)
I believe Darwin would say, yes, it is your fault, or rather your gene's fault that you had insufficient armor/reflexes to prevent your death.
That it is your fault doesn't mean you did anything wrong however.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday August 15 2017, @04:38PM
failure != fault != wrong
OP doesn't imply moral liability. Quite the opposite. It argues against social Darwinism and it's use to justify breaking the law.
Oh, and Darwin commented on the attempts to apply his work to social theory with contempt and ridicule. He understood people being scam might work on the individual level but would be disastrous to the species as a whole. Sadly, that's not something you can teach people brain washed by capitalist hedonism that seeks momentary personal fulfillment at any expense.
(Score: 3, Insightful) by Rivenaleem on Tuesday August 15 2017, @08:07AM (10 children)
It is entirely possibly that the kid was engaging in a fun activity like Zip-lining, and fell from quite a height. This could very easily happen within 48 hours of attending the camp. I am more concerned by the scars, though I wonder if this is poor translation. You do not develop scars in 48 hours, and this might be a sign of abuse at home.
Until they perform an investigation we can only speculate and it is so easy to jump on the bandwagon of bashing internet addiction camps. Is it too hard to ask people to wait for facts before making a judgement?
(Score: 2, Touché) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday August 15 2017, @08:24AM (3 children)
Maybe millions of jews just stumbled by accident to the gas bunkers and somehow the air sealed door got locked maybe because they were playing a fun game and they sorta asphyxiated and the nice Nazis just cremated their bodies to prevent bad smell.
Let's not be hasty in condemning these good folk!
Apologists never stop amazing me. You know,
Once is happenstance,
Twice is coincidence,
Three times is enemy action.
-- Auric Goldfinger
(Score: 1, Funny) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday August 15 2017, @08:33AM
Friend, why so sarcastic? The benefit of the doubt must always go to the authorities. That is how we will achieve perfect order and harmony forever.
(Score: 3, Insightful) by Rivenaleem on Tuesday August 15 2017, @12:36PM (1 child)
Except we have well documented evidence to the contrary for the Holocaust. For this particular death, no investigation has yet been made, so we really know nothing. We condemn salacious attention grabbing headlines all the time around here. So why not now? Just because we don't like internet addiction camps we don't give them the benefit of due process?
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday August 16 2017, @06:01PM
How many times do you need to get the evidence? Please stop playing stupid games, it's intellectually dishonest. E.g. http://edition.cnn.com/2009/WORLD/asiapcf/08/19/china.internet/ [cnn.com]
What you propose certainly is possible, just very very unlikely.
(Score: 2) by LoRdTAW on Tuesday August 15 2017, @11:59AM (5 children)
Camp does not necessarily imply outdoors and tents. Camp can be anything really.
(Score: 2) by Rivenaleem on Tuesday August 15 2017, @12:39PM (4 children)
Yes, it also doesn't imply guaranteed torture and beatings either. My objection is that the article jumps to the conclusion that the kid was killed by a deliberate act, instead of the possibility that they died through any other means. Are we all okay with a biased media suddenly?
(Score: 2) by LoRdTAW on Tuesday August 15 2017, @12:42PM (3 children)
What are you talking about? I merely pointed out that camp doesn't have to involve or be outdoors. Nothing more, nothing less.
(Score: 2) by Rivenaleem on Tuesday August 15 2017, @12:53PM (2 children)
My original post was about "his death could have simply been an accident" and I use the example of zip-lines as how a person can die engaging in some fun activity that has a small element of risk.
Pointing out that it could have been indoors has nothing to add to the discussion, so I took it as a counter argument, why else would it matter whether it was an indoor or outdoor activity? He could have died falling down a stairs while on camp and someone would post an article stating "child goes to internet addiction camp and dies".
The title on the summary states "Chinese Teen Dies as a Result of Internet Addiction Camp". It implies causation where none has been proven. Sure it may be proven in the days to come that the kid was killed by someone at the camp, but until then coverage of the event should be neutral.
I don't get why someone would make the comment that camps could be indoors or outdoors except to derail the point of the topic.
(Score: 2) by LoRdTAW on Tuesday August 15 2017, @01:05PM (1 child)
Not my intention. I misunderstood your original post. Nothing more.
(Score: 2) by Rivenaleem on Tuesday August 15 2017, @01:07PM
Glad we cleared that up then. FWWWIENDS???
(Score: 5, Informative) by MostCynical on Tuesday August 15 2017, @08:37AM
death seems to be a side-effect of this sort of 'treatment' in China..
http://abcnews.go.com/Lifestyle/dark-deadly-side-chinas-internet-addiction-camps/story?id=24282781 [go.com]
apparently, 14 year olds also die in the US version of these camps.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Martin_Anderson_death_controversy [wikipedia.org]
"I guess once you start doubting, there's no end to it." -Batou, Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex
(Score: 3, Funny) by maxwell demon on Tuesday August 15 2017, @01:15PM
Did they take the term "drop off" a bit too literally?
The Tao of math: The numbers you can count are not the real numbers.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday August 15 2017, @05:45PM
They made him walk and chew gum at the same time.