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Yang Yongxin, director of the Center for Curing Internet Addiction at a hospital in Linyi in the east coast province of Shandong, says his technique is a form of aversion therapy – which aims to associate unpleasant experiences with undesired behavior.
Yang uses a current of 1 to 5 milliamperes to shock his young patients. He calls this “therapy to clear the mind,” and claims that it causes pain but does not damage the brain. There are about 150 youngsters currently participating in his program; he says more than 3,000 have successfully gone through it.
Electric shock therapy is commonly used to treat depression and other mental disorders. However, Internet addiction has not been officially defined as a mental disorder in China, or in the rest of the world. A small, short burst of electricity may not harm the bodies of the youngsters, yet many people are concerned that such treatment may be psychologically damaging – especially as many teenagers are tricked or forced into participating in the program.
Yang has worked at the Linyi hospital since graduating from a local medical school in 1982. He was appointed director of the Internet addiction program in March last year. The 47-year-old doctor has no qualification in psychotherapy; neither do any of the other six doctors who administer the shock treatments to youngsters.
Although parents are informed that their children will be exposed to electric shocks, they are more worried about the long-term effects of their attachment to cyber games than the short-term effects of the treatment. Some parents have described their feelings of delight upon seeing their children’s changed attitudes. Many become immediately repentant and obedient after only a 20-minute consultation in the special “therapy room,” designed to convince them to take part in the program.
In interviews with Chinese media, several “victims” who completed the program said they were forced by the doctors to agree to stay, being threatened with continuous shock treatments if they didn’t. Further, some children confessed that they had learned to lie to their parents by the end of the program, pretending to be “cured” so as not to extend their stay at the center.
Parents are asked to sign an agreement with the hospital, committing their children to stay for the entire four-and-a-half-month program. They are told that early withdrawal could result in a return to undesirable behavior. The program costs 30,000 yuan (US$4,400); parents must pay a penalty of 5,000 yuan (US$730) if they withdraw their children early.
Also, parents grant the hospital temporary guardianship over their children under 18 years old. For patients above 18, the center staff replied to a telephone inquiry, “It’s still no problem, just bring your kid here.” Those who try to run away are punished, for example, by being forced to do full bows to the ground 100 times per day, one experienced escapee told a Chinese newspaper.
There are more than 200 centers in China dedicated to “curing” Internet addiction – although it is not clear that many of them are resorting to electric shock therapy.
Aversion therapy is a kind of behavior modification technique, usually used for people addicted to drugs, alcohol or even sexual abuse. When punishment is associated with the deviant behavior a patient is addicted to, he or she can abandon the bad habit. There are three common types of aversion therapy – using electric shock, substances that induce vomiting, or unpleasant images.
Before such therapies are administered, a patient should be carefully examined and his or her condition verified; also, the therapy should be conducted under controlled circumstances, according to a Dr. Lu from the Shanghai Municipal Mental Health Center, who would give only his surname. For minors suffering from mental problems or confusion, it is better to try counseling or mentoring, Lu said.
Psychotherapists in both Beijing and Shanghai said that behavior therapy should be administered only by licensed psychotherapists, not by medical practitioners without proper training. Unfortunately, while both those cities have regulations governing the rights and obligations of professionals in the mental health field, such regulations are still reportedly lacking in Shandong province.
Also, considering Internet addiction a form of mental illness, especially among children, is highly controversial. Last November, the Health Department of the Chinese army, in cooperation with the Military General Hospital in Beijing, undertook to determine the criteria for the clinical diagnosis of “Internet addiction disorder.” Chinese media at that time reported that the Chinese Health Ministry in 2009 would possibly be the first to register such criteria with the World Health Organization.
Even so, the new criteria – which include using the Internet 6.13 hours per week, except for work, for a period of three months or more – remain controversial within the country. Advocates for the youngsters point out that Internet addiction does not have the legal status of a mental illness, and therefore any kind of forced treatment at a hospital or center can be considered illegal detention and a violation of the rights to life and health of young Chinese netizens.
Nevertheless, there is a huge market for cures for this “addiction” in China, which claims 253 million Internet users. Some 4 to 6 million teenagers could meet the unofficial criteria for addiction. Few Chinese parents seem to have the confidence to manage their children’s interest in the cyber world. There are a handful of positive stories – for instance, some youngsters have become successful online entrepreneurs – but they are the lucky exceptions to the rule.
