China Daily a clinic was using electroshock treatment on teenagers to treat them for Internet addiction. China's Ministry of Health has ordered a halt to the controversial practice.

The China Daily reported last month that more than 3,000 young people were tricked or forced into in to the four-month long course. To enroll their children, parents or guardians had to sign a contract acknowledging that they would be given electric shocks of up to 200 milliamperes. The treatment cost 6,000 yuan ($878) per month. Patients were considered “cured” or “reborn” once they admitted to their addiction. According to the Guangdong-based Information Times, shocks were given if patients broke any of the center's 86 rules, which included prohibitions on eating chocolate, locking the bathroom door, taking pills before a meal, and sitting in Dr. Yang's chair without permission.

Details of the treatment first became public when former patients wrote about their experiences online. In addition to the electric shocks, they claimed that they were not allowed to talk about anything other than overcoming their Internet addiction, ordered to kneel in front of their parents to show obedience, and forced to confess to “wrongdoing.”