Teens addicted to technology can go off the grid at ‘fasting’ camps

How do we know our internet addiction is getting out of control?

Starting next year, Japanese parents will be able to send their teens to internet “fasting” camps, where staff will make sure they are kept busy all day with fun activities, swimming, crafts and time in the woods.

Or as people used to call it once upon a time: Camp.

It’s a troubling prospect that the summertime event kids used to spend all school year anticipating is now being heralded as some kind of rehabilitative therapy.

Also see: How technology might be making you sick

But according to The Japan News, the web addiction problem has gotten so bad in the Asian nation that it counts over half a million teenagers at risk for depression, nutritional deficits, poor sleep habits, and declining school performance among other potential risks linked to too much technology.

"It's becoming more and more of a problem," Akifumi Sekine, a spokesman for Japan’s ministry of education, tells the Daily Telegraph. "We estimate this affects around 518,000 children at middle and high schools across Japan, but that figure is rising and there could be far more cases because we don't know about them all."

"We want to get them out of the virtual world and to encourage them to have real communication with other children and adults," he adds.

Once they arrive at the outdoorsy location, staff will confiscate all cell phones, tablets and laptops. There will be no online access for the duration of their stay.

Also see: Is Facebook making you depressed?

In addition to having to actually interact with one another in real life without being able to text at the dining hall table, the teens will be encouraged to participate in team sports and outdoor activities, while a team of psychiatrists and counselors will be on hand to help them work through any withdrawal or trauma associated with not being able to check Facebook or email throughout the day.

Though Japan’s camps will be oriented toward youth, the idea is not a new one. In California’s technology hub, Silicon Valley, where much of the problem generates, the addicted adults who help abet our own addictions can sign up for Camp Grounded, where they sleep in bunk beds and have bonfires without being able to Instagram any of it.

If this becomes a trend across the world, we need to start doing better for our children – and ourselves.