With over 300 million people online, China has the world’s largest netizen population. So it should come as no surprise that internet addiction (mostly among China’s youth) is a fast-growing epidemic. In a recent article in Time Magazine, writer, Jessie Jiang explored this growing obsession and the effect it is having on families and individuals all over China.

In her article, Jiang tells the story of Wang Hongxia, a Chinese mother who was forced to drive her 12-year-old soon to a secluded military compound located in Beijing, over 700 miles away from her home. The mother felt like she had no choice. Her son’s internet addiction was so out of control that he beat and bit her because she wouldn’t allow him touch the computer earlier that morning.

Wang took her son to one of many Internet Addiction Centers located in China. This particular facility was the first military-run boot camp dedicated to treating internet addiction. Established in 2004, the center has treated over 3,000 cases of internet addiction and the numbers are growing.

But how exactly does China define an Internet addiction? Jiang’s article explains how Tao Ran, director of the Beijing treatment center played a role in defining Internet Addiction in China. Currently, Internet addiction in China is defined as consecutive usage of the web for six hours a day for three straight months. Many in China argue that too many people can be wrongly classified as Internet addicts under the current definition.

Patients who enter a Chinese Internet addiction facility are usually kept there for 3 months with no contact to the outside world. In addition, if a parent brings their child to the facility, the parent of the patient must stay for treatment as well, since the government also defines Internet addiction as a parenting “mistake”.