The Internet Addiction Treatment Center in Daxing, China is one of over 400 prison-like rehabilitation centres that seek to “deprogram” teens from their crippling addiction to the world wide web.

China was one of the first countries to brand internet addiction as a clinical disorder, and label it as the number one threat to its teenagers today.

Most of the inmates are boys, who are either drugged by their parents or forcefully dragged in to the rehab centres. Most don’t know why, or how they ended up in rehab. One child reports:

Some kids were drugged, others were tricked into coming here. Usually, it’s the parents [who drugged them]. Sometimes, the Center will send staff to do it. One kid was sleeping. Seven or eight drillmasters carried him here. When he woke up, he was at the Camp. Many students got here like that.

Though the actions of the parents and medical professionals seem harsh, the truth is that these children actually do spend far too much time on the internet.

Nicky, a 16 year-old, played World of Warcraft for ten hours a day. Another kid claims to have played World of Warcraft for 300 hours straight, taking only tiny naps in between. “Only fifteen days?” another kid replies. “During summer vacation, I played for two whole months.”

‘Web Junkie’ is a documentary that goes inside one of these one of these rehab centres. Here’s a little trailer.

[Source : Daily Beast, YouTube]