The compound — part boot camp, part rehab centre — resembles programmes around the world for troubled youths. Drill instructors drive young men through military-style obstacle courses, counselors lead group sessions, and there are even therapeutic workshops on pottery and drumming.But these young people are not battling alcohol or drugs. Rather, they have severe cases of what many in this country believe is a potentially deadly addiction: cyberspace.They come here, to the Jump Up Internet Rescue School, the first camp of its kind in South Korea and possibly the world, to be cured.South Korea boasts of being the most wired nation on earth. In fact, perhaps no country has so fully embraced the Internet. Ninety per cent of homes connect to cheap, high-speed broadband, online gaming is a professional sport, and social life for the young revolves around the “PC bang”, dim Internet parlours that sit on practically every street corner.But such ready access to the Web has come at a price as legions of obsessed users find that they cannot tear themselves away from their computer screens.It has become a national issue here in recent years, as users started dropping dead from exhaustion after playing online games for days on end. A growing number of students have skipped school to stay online, shockingly self-destructive behaviour in this intensely competitive society.They spend at least two hours a day online, usually playing games or chatting. Of those, up to a quarter million probably show signs of actual addiction, like an inability to stop themselves from using computers and withdrawal symptoms like anger and craving when prevented from logging on.The rescue camp, in a forested area about an hour south of Seoul, was created to treat the most severe cases. This year, the camp held its first two 12-day sessions, with 16 to 18 male participants each time. Participants live at the camp, where they are denied computer use and allowed only one hour of cell phone calls a day, to prevent them from playing online games via the phone. They also follow a rigorous regimen of physical exercise and group activities, like horseback riding, aimed at building emotional connections to the real world and weakening those with the virtual one.
