China Bans Electric Shocks And Beatings As Treatment For Its Web-Addicted Children

China is to ban the use of electric shock therapy, thrashings & other unmannerly methods that are used in grim boot camps which treat youngsters for Internet compulsion, media reported.

The Global Times on Monday advised a centre in the eastern Shandong jurisdiction had used electrical stimulation to "treat" more than 6,000 Internet addicts - "mostly teenagers" - since 2006.

The facility was still be carrying out electroshock therapy last year according to news portal Sixth Tone, often at the request of parents who sent their children to the camp.

The new laws against using “abuse or coercion” to wean the country’s youth from the web are contained in draft regulations which media said will “protect minors' rights in cyberspace”.

Other events include prohibition online gaming companies from providing services for younger individuals between midnight and 8am.

“Any organisation or individual is barred from accepting illegal measures, such as abuse or coercion (which could) impair juveniles’ mental health and legitimate rights and interests,” said the draft regulations, which were posted on an official Chinese government website.

The state-run Global Times paper quoted an expert saying the new measures would prohibit the use of electric shock therapy.

The Chinese health ministry previously asked all hospitals to stop "electrical stimulation" for internet addiction, local media reported in 2009.

China has more than 710 million Internet users, and around 23 percent are under 19, according to Government figures released last summer. Some estimates suggest that 10 percent of Chinese youth could be addicted to the web.

Internet bootcamps came under the spotlight in China after a 15-year-old boy died less than 24 hours after arriving at one facility in 2009. He was allegedly beaten to death.

They were at the centre of controversy again in September last year when multiple reports said a teenage girl tied her mother to a chair and starved her to death in revenge for sending her to a camp.

The centres are widely reported to use violence, abuse, and military-style methods. There are said to be up to 250 such centres in China, all of which operate in legal grey areas.

The new regulations have been released for consultation until February 6.