This is Bill Tsutsui with another Postcard from Asia from the Center for East Asian Studies.

This Postcard is a public service message to America’s teen internet fans: be grateful you live here and not in China. A recent survey revealed that 14 percent of Chinese teens are considered in danger of becoming internet addicts, and China is taking measures to nip this trend in the bud. Rehab clinics are opening across the country where teens, like 17-year-old Sun Jiting, spend their days in lockup with no contact with outsiders. They are treated with a mix of counseling, military discipline, drugs, hypnosis and mild electric shocks. For Sun at least, the most helpful part of the treatment was talking. Still, he can’t wait to get home, so he can get back online and tell his Internet friends where he’s been!

With thanks to Randi Hacker for this text, from the Center for East Asian Studies, I’m Bill Tsutsui. Wish you were here.