Chinese consider Internet addiction a national threat

China has announced that they've banned the practice of electro-shock therapy to "treat" the scourge of - ready for this? - Internet addiction. I guess this means they've arrived in the 21st century?

Hardly.

Not too long ago I wrote to you that some doctors have found some relative merits to electro-shock therapy, which was widely used (and abused, in my opinion) as a treatment for depression from the Victorian era all the way until the early 1970s, and it's made something of a comeback here in the U.S.

But the point of this little news item is less about China embracing or rejecting the concept of electro-shock therapy - and more about the fact that the Chinese government has labeled "Internet addiction" as a serious national health threat.

To be sure, there are many people here in the U.S. who have become over-dependant and even "addicted" to cyberspace. But I dismiss the idea that this bad habit is a true addiction.

It's a totally different story for the repressive old-line Commies who run China. To them, the Internet is indeed a threat since it spreads ideas and can open a window to the western (read: free) world that the Chinese government would prefer stayed tightly shut.