China fights internet addiction with drills

Online games are experiencing a peak in popularity among teenagers in China. Concerned parents are increasingly turning to special institutions that deal with difficult cases of Internet addiction. There are already 250 military-style training camps in the country dealing with this problem. The Qide Education Center in Beijing is one of them.

(Total 16 photos)

1. The educational program in Qide includes psychological consultations, drills, traditional Chinese etiquette, music, dance, and cooking. In drill classes, students often have to receive group punishments. Not always as severe as in the picture. Photo: Reuters / Kim Kyung-Hoon

2. A student is talking to an instructor through a window in a door hung with photos of happy students. Photo: Reuters / Kim Kyung-Hoon

3. The barracks of the correctional camp in Beijing. Photo: Reuters / Kim Kyung-Hoon

4. Classes in drill. Students laugh while receiving group punishment. Photo: Reuters / Kim Kyung-Hoon

5. One of the teenagers with Internet addiction helps to clean the toilets in the camp. Photo: Reuters / Kim Kyung-Hoon

6. Students cook vegetables as part of an educational program at the Tside Center. Photo: Reuters / Kim Kyung-Hoon

7. In addition to physical exercise, teenagers in the camp are forced to take medication, as well as meet with a psychologist. Photo: Reuters / Kim Kyung-Hoon

8. Measurement of brain activity in a teenager suffering from Internet addiction at the Daxing Internet Addiction Treatment Center in Beijing. Photo: Reuters / Kim Kyung-Hoon

9. Music lessons. Photo: Reuters / Kim Kyung-Hoon

10. For a long time, there was very little information in the media about what was happening inside the correctional camps for Internet addicts, but a few years ago, a British publication reported the death of a teenager in one of these institutions. A little later, it became known about the death of a girl who died as a result of her injuries in another camp. Photo: Reuters / Kim Kyung-Hoo

11. A student in a Beijing paramilitary camp during a lesson with a psychologist. Photo: Reuters / Kim Kyung-Hoon

12. Classes for drill in a correctional camp in Beijing. Photo: Reuters / Kim Kyung-Hoon

13. Dancing at recess. Photo: Reuters / Kim Kyung-Hoon

14. In the photo: classes in traditional Chinese ethics in a correctional camp in Beijing. Photo: Reuters / Kim Kyung-Hoon

15. A teenager who has completed a six-month course at the camp hugs a classmate. Photo: Reuters / Kim Kyung-Hoon

16. Students say goodbye to a friend who completed a six-month rehabilitation course in a Beijing camp. Photo: Reuters / Kim Kyung-Hoon