Uprising at a Chinese Internet addiction camp

Some of China’s young Internet "addicts" have evidently been pushed too far: 

A group of young Chinese web addicts staged a mutiny at an Internet "boot camp", tying up their instructor and fleeing the facility over its tough military-like techniques, state media said Tuesday.

The 14 mutineers, aged 15 to 22, were all caught by police when they failed to pay a taxi fare following their escape from the rehabilitation centre in east China’s Jiangsu province last week, the Global Times said.

They had tied up their supervisor in his bed to allow them to escape the "monotonous work and intensive training" at the camp, it said.

Conditions in these camps are reportedly pretty horrific. The use of electroshock therapy was banned by the government last year, but reports of abuses continue, including that of a 15-year-old boy who was beaten to death at a facility last summer. Christopher Stewart had a good piece on the Chinese Internet addiction panic in Wired a few months ago.

Hat tip: China Digital Times.