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title: China&#x27;s Internet Boot Camps Are on The Rise
description: Centers for treating internet addiction may do more harm than good
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# China's Internet Boot Camps Are on the Rise

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by 

[Bijan Stephen](https://time.com/author/bijan-stephen/)


## Bijan Stephen


Jul 6, 2014 2:34 PM UTC

by 

[Bijan Stephen](https://time.com/author/bijan-stephen/)


## Bijan Stephen


Jul 6, 2014 2:34 PM UTC

When you think boot camps, what do you picture? Involuntary incarceration? Behavioral modification? Military-style discipline?

If you said yes to the above, you’d be correct—and now, these techniques are being widely applied to fight internet addiction in China. Recently, _The Straits Times_ [reported](http://www.straitstimes.com/news/asia/east-asia/story/real-life-call-duty-chinese-teens-battling-internet-addiction-20140701) that there “are as many as 250 camps in China alone”; _Smithsonian_, for its part, [adds](http://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/china-now-has-250-boot-camps-cure-teens-internet-addiction-180951951/) that camps like those in China have surfaced in South Korea as well.

In 2007, the New York _Times_ [reported](http://www.nytimes.com/2007/03/12/technology/12iht-addicts.4880894.html?%5Fr=0) on the first of the military-style camps:

---

> “”

---

The article concluded that the cause of addiction lay somewhere between parents’ expectations, a hyper-competitive environment, and the fear of failure.

But the boot camps aren’t unique to Asia. Last month, VICE [wrote](http://motherboard.vice.com/read/the-hidden-danger-of-internet-addiction-sketchy-treatment-centers) on America’s first internet addiction camp, reSTART, which opened in Seattle in 2009\. It warned that the camps may do more harm than good, a conclusion that the _Straits Times_ echoes:

---

> “”

---


A cautionary tale, certainly.

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