CRI听力:Military-style Boot Camp Sets Up to Stop Child Internet Addiction

It's around 30 minutes after midnight, but loud calls and orders are sending a group young boot camp attendees scrambling into action.

This is all part of the intensive rehabilitation given by the boot camp for teenagers with internet and online gaming addictions.

Being woken in the middle of the night for a surprise session of military training has become routine for these teenagers, including 15-year-old Liu Jianming, a newcomer sent by his parents to the camp four months ago:

Liu say the methods used by the camp are really effective:

"Yes it is helpful, because if I stay here for a few months, I will cherish the feeling of freedom out there and I basically will never touch online gaming again,"

Liu Jiang who enrolled nine years ago, however, disagrees:

"We are not thinking about internet addiction, we just want to get out, and we would do everything to get out."

Despite arguments over the effectiveness of such boot camps, the attendees spend on average six months in the facility. Activities in their core training include washing plates and cutlery after meals, martial arts, and psychological counselling.

Yu Yabo, founder of this particular Shandong-based boot camp explains the rationale behind their training methods:

"You should firstly bring them here to calm down, without phones and money. Everyone living here will be treated the same, without any connection to the outside world, then they will ask themselves; Why I am here? What should I do here? How should I do it? And then they will look around at the others and rethink themselves. Things become easy once they calm down."

The boot camp first opened in 2009. Now there are 20 personnel working here, including ten military training teachers and five psychologists.

Zu Xinjian, a teacher and also a former member of the Chinese armed police, says treating internet addiction is not an easy task:

"Firstly, it's because treatment with psychological counseling alone doesn't work. Secondly, the children won't cooperate with you. Sometimes they will even display abnormal behaviour that's different from others, even become aggressive."

To push the students further, the camp also limits students' contact with their loved ones, allowing them to see their parents once every three months and communicate with relatives only via hand-written letters.

Beijing-based psychologist, Paul Yin, however, believes the treatment for internet addicted youngsters cannot be fully effective unless the parents themselves take their share of responsibility.

"There's a Chinese saying from an ancient text, it says; Whenever you see a problem, if you want to solve the problem, the first thing you need to do is to look in the mirror, and that's what parents need to do,"

So far, some 250 boot camps have been set up across China, trying to help wean increasing numbers of teenagers off their addiction to the internet.