Three guards (who are now detained) apparently beat the boy for “running too slowly,” despite the camp promising that it uses no techniques that might compromise a visitor’s health. His father had paid the camp $US1,024 for Deng Senshan’s treatment.

According to Time, there are hundreds of such camps in China. This is the first reported death from an internet addiction facility. [Global Times via WSJ via The Raw Feed]

The registration system will go into effect this year. Real-name registration has been proven to reduce strongly addictive behaviour in games because aside from removing the seperation from reality a fake name can provide, it also allows officials and parents to monitor usage directly.

Kind of scary, considering that gaming “addiction” still feels like a few (albeit real) shocking headlines inflated ad infinitum by a media and government that’s hungry for a scapegoat. And now everyone must pay. [Ars Technica]

It sounds almost too terrible to be true, but research is starting to show that a large crop of humanity’s future is becoming so addicted to TV time and video games that their basic communication skills are not materialising. Instead, UK kids are apparently Dr. Who savants with wicked hand-eye coordination. That’s great for Halo online multiplayer, but not great for the kids, as the epidemic is purportedly more prevalent than dyslexia or autism, experts said.

The problem has spurred Tory MP John Bercow to propose an ambitious nation-wide screening program to ID these developmentally challenged youths and treat them accordingly. The screening tests would be conducted during routine annual checkups just like an eye or hearing test test.

And a brief aside to close things out: Video games at two years old? I think I was trying to put square blocks into circular holes, but whatever. I’m not jealous just as sure as I am that my name is… [The Telegraph]

The Mismo cigarette comes from Sosu’s ‘Nicolestyle’ (or “Nicotine-less Style”) line of products. Nicotine-free and tar-free, the cigarettes ensure you get your essential nutrients such as CoQ10 and Vitamin C. Flavors come in mint and grapefruit, which lay in cartridges that cost about $10 each and last for 300 inhales. For about $US126, you can at least look swanky and cultured (coughpretentiouscough) as you hang outside a high upscale Euro club. I guess smoking is still pretty in–just this morning I swore I woke up and for a few hours I thought it was 1929. [Engrish]

I’ve never played World of Warcraft. I’m not sure if the abbreviation is pronounced by spelling out the letters W-O-W or if you just saw “wow.” It seems like the kind of thing where you have to know the difference between an elf and an orc, and I gotta be honest, I just don’t care. But this is so over-the-top that I’m almost interested in finding the one true ring or banging lady-dwarves or whatever you do in that game. Prepared’s setup features a whopping seven separate laptops, four desktops hidden away under the desk, and an array of screens that’s disorienting even in a static image. He might be the only person on earth who’s capable of using the 15-button mouse. Prepared claims that $US5700 a year is reasonable for a hobby, and he’s totally right. I can think of at least three hard drugs that would be more expensive.

Edit: I’ve been informed that our industrious nerd is not Bradster but Prepared. Sorry for the commotion this must have caused Bradster and his family. [Ripten via Crunchgear]

They were brought in after spending an average of six hours a day on their phones, talking, texting or playing games.

Their parents became concerned that the children, aged 12 and 13, were unable to carry out normal activities without their handsets. They were failing at school and deceiving relatives in an attempt to obtain more money for phone cards.

According to the doctors on staff, it’s the first time that a “specific” treatment has been used to cure mobile phone addiction. Then again, these are children who are 12 and 13. They seem a lot more like two kids distracted from their school work than strung-out junkies begging for quarters at the side of the road so that they can get their next fix. [telegraph]

With people literally dying from playing online games, this kind of treatment for the increasingly obsessed may eventually become the norm, but whatever the outcome, we cannot help but think this is an inevitable side effect of a medium that has so much to offer in a positive light. Responsible parenting and general lifestyle choices could ensure this problem is quashed right where it begins, but we doubt it. We would hate to think internet addiction becomes a real world problem, but with initiatives such as OLPC, might the internet eventually become the premier form of escapism? [New York Times]