![\"Chinese](\"http:\/\/mygaming.co.za\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/04\/Chinese-Gamers.jpg\")
<\/a><\/p>\nState media have highlighted the problem of addiction in several dramatic reports in recent months.<\/p>\n
Police arrested a 14-year-old boy who confessed to poisoning his family with agricultural chemicals after his parents stopped him from playing online games in the south-western city of Ziyang last year.<\/p>\n
In December, a local newspaper reported that a man in the northern province of Shaanxi hired online “assassins” to kill his 23-year-old son’s characters in popular games.<\/p>\n
The father reportedly wanted to push his son, who had played online games since his mid-teens, to try harder to find a job by making him lose interest in the games.<\/p>\n
Another report last month featured an unemployed college graduate who had lived at a internet cafe in the north-eastern city of Changchun for up to six years, leaving each day to buy food and sometimes to take showers.<\/p>\n
“His case is quite serious, but it is common among addicts,” said Ding Jianlue, a psychologist at Jilin University in Changchun who met the young man living in the internet cafe.<\/p>\n
“He is a young man who cannot find a job after graduation, so he chose to escape,” Ding said.<\/p>\n
Many Chinese adults, as well as juveniles, are addicted to the internet, he said.<\/p>\n
“Housewives use the internet to kill time, university students have plenty of free time and they are willing to accept new things and are very easily attracted by online games,” Ding said.<\/p>\n
“As for new graduates, they suffer huge pressure from society, so they prefer to release the stress and escape from their cruel reality via the internet,” he said.<\/p>\n
In February, the Ministry of Culture and the National Internet Information Office announced plans to develop a framework for diagnosing and treating internet addiction this year.<\/p>\n
The plan will prioritise interventions in juveniles’ addiction to online gaming and strengthen supervision of game producers and internet cafes, state media said.<\/p>\n
An earlier drive to tackle internet addiction began in 2008 when military doctors promoted voluntary, often commercial boot camps and treatments including drugs for juveniles.<\/p>\n
A military hospital in Beijing agreed to stop using electric-shock therapy for internet addicts following a media outcry, while two camp instructors were jailed in 2010 after a 15-year-old was beaten to death in the southern region of Guangxi.<\/p>\n
Pi and Ding both said the controversial military-style programmes were “very effective in the short-term,” but most of those treated returned to the same addictive behaviour after their release.<\/p>\n
The new government programme, expected to include family and group therapy, would be hampered by China’s lack of psychiatrists and qualified counsellors, Ding said.<\/p>\n
Author: Bill Smith<\/p>\n
More video game news<\/h3>\n
Video game addiction joins heroin, smoking, alcohol and gambling<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n Virtual hitmen hired to kill son\u2019s addiction<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n Video games are \u201celectronic child molesters\u201d<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n Prince Harry compares real war to playing video games<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n US town destroying video games<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n Baby starves to death as couple games on<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n