Chinese Internet Addicts Escape Re-education Camp

This sounds like something that would be a great movie plot. A bunch of youngsters, forced to enter a State Run Reeducation Camp because they spend too much time playing video games, jumped their head brainwasher and escaped into town, where presumably, the first thing they did was check their email and download an mp3 or two.

From TimesOnline here:

Fourteen young detainees overcame their guard and fled a boot camp regime of physical training and psychological treatment designed to cure their addiction — to the internet.

The group, aged 15 to 22, staged their mass breakout by grabbing a duty supervisor when he was in bed and immobilising him in his quilt.

He shouted for help and they apologised before tying him up. They then made their way in groups of three to the home town of the leader of the group.

The addicts made their break from the Huai’an Internet Addiction Treatment Centre in eastern Jiangsu province last Wednesday, complaining that they could no longer endure its “monotonous work and intensive training”.

Those “intensive training” sessions included calligraphy lessons, physical military exercise and long therapy sessions with a shrink. You can read here about how one kid died in one of these addiction camps.