Teenager's death sheds light on brutal discipline at military-style camps for internet addicts

A 19-year old girl’s death at a military-style “boot camp” in Henan province for internet-addiction treatment has shed light on the institute’s frequent use of corporal punishment.

The girl died last month after being forced to go through so-called “training” that involved being lifted by instructors to a short distance above the ground and then dropped, reported China National Radio on Sunday.

Another 14-year old girl who also underwent the same training suffered a dislocated bone at the back of her neck, and other head injuries. She said the dead girl had been forced to undergo this practice repeatedly for two hours before she started to vomit blood and eventually fell unconscious.

“They [trainers] suspected she was pretending and continued to kick her,” the injured teenager was cited as saying in recalling the fatal incident. Eventually the 19-year-old stopped breathing before medical staff called by the treatment camp arrived at the scene, but they were unable to revive her.

Zhengzhou police have detained five trainers who were allegedly involved in the girl’s death. The municipal education bureau also stripped the centre of its licence due to its “chaotic administration”.

Other students at the institute told the radio programme that trainers frequently resorted to corporal punishment. Students were often ordered to “stand still at night without going to sleep and lie on their stomachs on snow-covered fields in the winter,” the programme reported.

Students had been so desperate to escape from the centre that they resorted to throwing “rescue notes” from the windows.