Jailbreaking Internet Addiction Camp

From China comes striking confirmation that you should never, ever take kids away from their computer and provide them rigorous physical training:

Fourteen young detainees overcame their guard and fled a boot camp regime of physical training and psychological treatment designed to cure their addiction — to the internet.

The group, aged 15 to 22, staged their mass breakout by grabbing a duty supervisor when he was in bed and immobilising him in his quilt.

. . .

One mother wept at the police station when she described how her son once spent 28 consecutive hours playing online games. A camp official justified the methods used to cure the addiction, saying: “We have to use military style methods such as total immersion and physical training on these young people. We need to teach them some discipline and help them to establish a regular lifestyle.”

"Internet addiction" is a pretty dubious concept, and Chinese internet addiction camps are notorious for their brutality, so hats off to the kids for fighting back. (You'll have to click through to see the denouement.)

My 7-yr-old starts – video game design camp in three weeks. If he breaks out of that, then it'll be a sign that something is badly awry in the world.

(Link via Vaughan Bell of Mindhacks.)