POV: 28x4

Web Junkie

A look at Internet addiction in China via the experiences of teens at Daxing Boot Camp in Beijing, one of some 400 rehabilitation centers created by the government to treat the disorder. Patients, who are kept under constant surveillance, take part in rigorous exercise, group therapy, brain scans and classroom instruction. “It is an abyss swallowing my son,” says one mother of why she sought help for her son. It’s also not cheap. Parents, many at their wits’ end, often borrow money to pay.