What the heck is going on in China. Today, Wall Street Journal is reporting that a 16-year old kid was beaten to death in “internet addiction” camp by his counselors. They were supposed to treat him but became agitated with him and ended up killing him instead.

The Chinese government is investigating the matter and has closed the internet addiction camp. Besides the atrocity of someone getting killed at a camp that’s supposed to be helping them, what the heck is an internet addiction camp? I can’t even believe there are such things. You want someone to stop using the internet, just cancel the service, get rid of the computer. There are much better ways to stop the “addiction” than sending a kid to a camp.

Here’s a snippet from the WSJ blog post:

On Monday, police in the south China city of Nanning said that a 16-year-old boy died in at a boot camp for Internet addicts after being beaten by supervisors, according to the Global Times, in what would be the first reported case of a death at a treatment facility for Internet addiction.

The three adults who beat the teenager have been detained by police, his father told the Global Times, and the boy’s family is also planning a protest at local government offices to demand a full investigation and immediate closure of the treatment facility.

The clinic’s mission statement promised a tough environment but said that torture and “other methods that might damage a child’s health” were not used. Last month, the Ministry of Health ordered another Internet addiction center in northern China to stop using electroshock as a form of punishment after former patients complained online of harsh tactics.

This comes on the heals of a Foxconn employee committing suicide in China after losing an iPhone prototype. I’m just wondering WTH is going on in China with people dying over tech and gadgets.