China Internet addict beaten to death in rehab

The three supervisors who allegedly beat Deng Senshan, 16, were arrested after the boy's death early Sunday, his father Deng Fei told the Global Times.

"We are investigating a case where a high school student was beaten to death by his camp supervisors. The case is still under investigation," a police officer in Nanning, Guangxi region, was quoted as saying.

Deng Fei said he paid 7,000 yuan (1,000 dollars) to give his son a month's training at the Guangxi Qihuang Survival Training Camp to rid him of his addiction to the Internet.

Deng Fei said he paid 7,000 yuan (1,000 dollars) to give his son a month's training at the Guangxi Qihuang Survival Training Camp to rid him of his addiction to the Internet.

But instead, he said, the boy was put in solitary confinement shortly after his arrival and then beaten to death by his trainers who scolded him for running too slowly.

"My son was very healthy and was not a criminal. He just had an Internet addiction when I left him at the camp," Deng Fei told the paper.

"We can't believe our only son was beaten to death."

China has the world's largest number of Internet users with 338 million -- more than the entire population of the United States.

More than 10 million of the country's 100 million teenage web surfers are Internet addicts, the China Daily said, citing a survey by the China Youth Internet Association last year.

In recent years, China has struggled with what is perceived as a rampant addiction to the Internet among the nation's youth. In 2007, a sociologist at Huazhong Normal University claimed that online gaming and Internet addiction were destroying the country's youth, and called for heavy restrictions. Back in March, the Chinese government claimed that its anti-addiction programs that restricted the amount of time minors could spend online were working, and just last month the Ministry of Health said that it was shutting down a controversial electroshock treatment program.

According to TIME, there are hundreds of camps in China like the one where Deng Senshen was brutally beaten, but he is the first reported casualty in the nation from an Internet addiction facility.