With the increased penetration of the Internet in China, the numbers of internet addicts have also shot up. The Chinese government had earlier come up with a strategy to check the internet addiction among youngsters particularly school going children and this was by setting up correction camps and counseling sessions. Some of these correction camps were military styled which gave strenuous physical exercises and punishments.

But with the recent death of a 15 year old boy in one of the camps, China’s Ministry of Health has come up with a solution – by banning all kinds of physical punishments in such camps that treat youngsters from their internet addiction. Figures at the ministry suggest that the number of internet addicts could go to as high as 10% of the Internet users with most of them being under the age of 20. Internet addiction has been an alarming problem in China and the ones that use the internet for more than 6 hours and lose interest in school are called Internet addicts.