Chinese youth beaten to death at net addiction bootcamp

China's anti-internet addiction industry has claimed another victim, after supervisors at a rehabilitation camp allegedly beat a 16 year old inmate to death.

Deng Senshan had been sent to Guangxi Qihuang Survival Training Camp to "cure" him of his internet addiction, the AFP reports. His parents were paying $1000 for the treatment.

However, the youth ended up in solitary confinement shortly after arriving at the establishment, and was subsequently beaten to death by supervisors for "running too slowly", according to the news agency.

Local police confirmed they were investigating the death of a high school student, allegedly at the hands of his supervisors.

China is in the grip of acute paranoia over the threat of internet addiction to its youth. Efforts to cure the young of their affliction range from the bizarre to the brutal, by way of out and out quackery.

Last month the government banned the use of electric shock treatment to cure young people of their web lust.

The crackdown followed controversy over the techniques plied by Doctor "Uncle" Yang Yongxin in Shandong province, who had been pushing a combination of electro-shock courses to his young charges, alongside psychotropic drugs and boot camp type exercises, and charging their parents $805 a month, Reuters reports. ®