When Cui Nan realized his parents had tricked him, that instead of taking him to a new job, they were delivering him to a hospital for Internet Addiction Disorder (IAD), not for one second did he imagine their white lie could turn out to be true.

But just 15 days' later, the 25-year-old from Hebei Province became a paid volunteer at the IAD centre at the Central Hospital of the Beijing Military Command, working as an assistant to the center's psychological consultant.

The centre now pays him 500 yuan (US$60) a month for food.

"I didn't think the centre could change me when I was left here by my parents, and even my parents are surprised," Cui says. His mother is a nurse at a local hospital, and his father is an official with the local public health bureau.

Cui says he became hooked on Internet games after graduating from a local college more than two years ago, and failed to find a satisfactory job. "In those idle days, playing online games became my job, and gradually, without realizing it, I became addicted to living in the cyber world. I was on line almost every minute of the past two years except when I was eating or sleeping."

In spite of Cui's determination to resist therapy, somehow the doctors got through.

"I don't know exactly how my psychological consultant cured me, or maybe it was the medicine I took that worked. I think it's a combination of the two," Cui says.

Now he goes to Internet cafes two or three times a week, staying for a maximum of two hours each time. "I go there mainly to chat with friends or send emails to them. Of course, sometimes I also play games, but I'm no longer addicted."

Cui's work at the centre is to talk to patients. "As I had a similar experience, I can understand their thinking and talking to me may help loosen the knots of their addiction," he says.

Spurred by his own therapeutic experience, Cui has started studying psychology in Beijing, and hopes to find a job in the field after graduation.

The IAD centre has six professional psychological consultants, who talk to patients for at least an hour every day. Cui says the work of these psychologists is to "uncover the scar in patients' hearts," and encourage them to face it.

Medication, however, is also a major feature of treatment at the centre, says physician Ma Haichun. Internet addicts, unlike most users, develop a chemical imbalance in the brain, the same symptoms as found in drug or alcohol addicts.

The doctor says that in such a situation, psychotherapy is used to support drug therapy. The centre uses vitamin B and oryzanol to recover the neural balance.

The 10 to 15 days of treatment at the centre are only the start. Whether patients can fully rid themselves of addiction depends on their readjustment and self-control after leaving hospital, Ma says. The centre continues assessing patients for six months after they are discharged to keep track of their progress.

Latest official statistics show that China now has more than 100 million Internet users. It is estimated that more than 80 per cent of those are under 35, of which 17 per cent are juveniles.

The growth of Internet use has been accompanied by media coverage highlighting young people who have become addicted.

Since the IAD treatment centre was established in March, it has treated about 400 addicts, ranging in age from 13 to 27, says Ma.

About 200 addicts, most of them school children, came to the centre for treatment during the summer vacation that started in early July. The ward has only 14 beds, but receives requests to treat around 20 new cases every day, Ma says.

"These parents all hope their children can make a brand new start after leaving hospital, " Ma says.

In the eyes of the physician, however, Internet addiction is more a social puzzle than a medical problem. "We can change a child after 15 days' treatment, but it may be harder to change his family, and even harder to change the social environment he lives in. " Ma says.

While most people tend to think it is the computer or Internet that has caused all the problems, Ma believes the Internet is a scapegoat.

When a 13-year-old boy named Zhang Xiaoyi in Tianjin jumped to his death from a 24-storey building in late December, the media once again trained their sights on the Internet and Internet cafes.

Local media blamed Internet cafes for driving the boy to suicide. Under Chinese law, Internet cafes should not be open to anyone under 18.

But Bu Wei, a researcher on the media's impact on juveniles, says it is unfair to hold up the Internet or Internet cafes as a social evil like opium or heroin, though she agrees illegal Internet cafes should be stamped out.

According to the media researcher, the Internet does not itself have a direct impact on children. How it affects a child depends on factors including family relationships, education backgrounds of parents, teachers' attitude towards them, their positions in class, relationships with peers and so on.

Physician Ma says many of his young patients became addicted as a way of rebelling or to take some kind of revenge on their parents.

These children, Ma says, lack freedom and independence. They are so strictly controlled by their parents and pressured by school work that they turn to cyberspace, which provides what their real lives cannot. This, in turn, further undermines their relationship with their parents.

The doctor says that children would not become trapped so deep in the first place if they were on good terms with their parents.

"It's not the fault of the modern technology. Humans themselves create such problems," Ma says.

Cui Nan, who admits to not being on good terms with his parents, says that the family environment plays a key role in shaping children's characters. "A trivial matter in the eyes of parents might carry more weight in the hearts of children," Cui says.

Bu believes parents and schools should guide children on Internet use to ward off the danger of addiction before it strikes. "They cannot just leave children to use the Internet unsupervised, it should not be given the role of 'baby sitter.' Only with adult guidance can children develop the self-control and independence necessary for responsible Internet use."

The researcher also stresses that Internet usage does not of itself lead to a drop in performance at school or a decline in moral standards.

A survey on the impact of Internet use by juveniles conducted by Bu and other researchers in five major Chinese cities in 2000 showed no clear relation between Internet use and a fall in children's school performance. The news media, says Bu, should shoulder the blame for misrepresenting the effects of Internet use by reporting too many negative stories.

Physician Ma also says that the aim of IAD treatment centre is not to isolate addicts completely from the Internet. "Our aim is to help them develop stronger self control, and allow them to become masters, not slaves, of the cyber world."

(China Daily October 28, 2005)