ZHU ZHENGHUA thought his parents were taking him to Beijing to go sightseeing.

Instead they checked the 19-year-old into a clinic for internet addicts at the Beijing Military Hospital that claims to be the world’s first. “I used to stay online until I was tired. I don’t know how long. Days?” Zhu said. “So I think maybe this clinic is good for me.”

China’s soaring on-line population recently topped 100 million, but that has brought problems as well as advantages. Such is their obsession with the internet that almost all the clinic’s young patients have dropped out of school or college. They cease to communicate with family or friends. They live huddled in front of a computer screen, drifting through internet chat rooms or playing violent online games.

“These are children with low self-esteem or behavioural problems and going on to the internet boosts their selfconfidence. It makes them feel mature and successful and it gives them a sense of achievement,” said Tao Ran, the director of the clinic and a specialist with 20 years’ experience in treating addictions.

He describes the children as suffering from depression, fear and an unwillingness to interact with others. Many have sleep disorders and numbness in their hands. However, he regards the internet as a catalyst rather than a cause. Almost all the children have behavioural problems that are aggravated by their internet addiction. In the past they might have turned to crime, drugs or even suicide to cope with their feelings of alienation.

Of his patients, about 80 per cent are addicted to games and about 10 per cent to chat rooms. Five per cent go online to gamble and 5 per cent fall into the category of obsessive experts. Dr Tao tells of one boy who crept out of his room at night and hacked his way into the clinic’s computer systems by cracking passwords.

Most addictive are the online games. “These are very attractive and very real,” Dr Tao said. He once experimented with his daughter’s online games and found them so mesmerising that he stayed up almost all night. China is now cracking down on online gaming, requiring that all games gain official approval.

Unlike drug addictions, the internet does not create dependency. Most of those who seek treatment can be cured. Dr Tao places his success rate at about 70 per cent. Those who slip back usually have other issues that they have failed to tackle. Common to almost all Dr Tao’s patients are family problems.

The patients are almost all children born under China’s strict “one couple, one child” policy who have been smothered with love and given too much freedom. Some are from one-parent families, and many have been handed to doting grandparents so the parents can seek their fortune in the city.

So Dr Tao insists on treating not only the addict. He ensures that the parents take part in counselling sessions as well. He has treated nearly 400 patients since opening the clinic this year. It can take 20, and boasts almost as many doctors and nurses. Treatment is hardly cheap at about £30 a day with patients staying an average of two weeks.

On arrival, they undergo a diagnostic test to determine whether they are addicted. They are then treated with a combination of therapy, medication, acupuncture and sports such as swimming and basketball to ease them back into the routines of normal life.

At 6am each day they go into the gardens for exercise drills under the supervision of a soldier responsible for their security. During the day they may undergo sessions on a machine that stimulates nerve impulses with 30-volt charges to pressure points. In the afternoon they gather in a circle in a small room, sitting on cushions on the floor, to share experiences. They also take medication.

One ward is shared by 16-year-old Dai Ge and Ji Liang, 15. Both boys have just been admitted and have yet to start their treatment. “I like to play games a lot. I think I understand why my parents sent me here,” said Ji Liang with a shy smile. Dai Ge lay on his back, stared at the ceiling and refused to look visitors in the eye. “I don’t play for such a long time online,” he muttered.

Dr Tao said that the boy usually spent eight hours a day online. “We’ll get to work with him tomorrow. He should be fine,” he said.

MILLIONS LOG ON

• There are an estimated 42 million computers in China, and 103 million internet users (7.9 per cent of population)
• There are more internet users in China than anywhere except the US
• Most Chinese access the internet through one of the country’s 100,000 internet cafés
• At any given moment, two million Chinese are gaming online
• Despite the surge in internet use, access is tightly controlled by the Government. Searches for sensitive topics such as “Dalai Lama” and “1989 Tiananmen Square” are restricted. Using any of more than a thousand key words, such as democracy or human rights, will cause a message to be blocked
• It is said some municipal authorities hire commentators to “guide opinion” in chat rooms and to “accentuate the good”

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