South Korea:South Korea, the world's most wired country, is hoping the short, sharp shock of the boot camp can help it to deal with a dangerous new phenomenon - internet addiction.
Some 30 per cent of children are at risk of the addiction, a much higher figure than the global average of 10 per cent, but Korea is an intensely tech-savvy and web-friendly country.
The nation has a 90 per cent high-speed broadband penetration rate, online gaming is rapidly overtaking other professional sports as a national obsession and there are internet cafes on every street corner, known as "PC bang".
Korean authorities have been quick to recognise the problem and are the world leader in treating internet overuse. In addition to the more than 100 hospitals providing treatment for internet addiction, the government has opted for tough love, setting up a network of about 140 consulting centres to deal with overuse. These combine the rigours of rehab with the discipline of boot camp to deal with the teens' internet obsessions.
At the Jump Up Internet Rescue School, the first camp of its kind in South Korea and possibly the world, drill instructors drive the youngsters through military-style obstacle courses, counsellors lead group sessions, and there are even therapy workshops on pottery and drumming.
During their stay and course of treatment at the facilities known as "internet rescue camps", the adolescents - all male - are treated like raw recruits in the military. They are forbidden to use the internet, while their mobile phone use is strictly limited to one hour a day.
Centre head Koh Young-sam said Korea's growing technological strength was accompanied by rising internet overuse.
"Korea has been most aggressive in embracing the internet. Now we have to lead in dealing with its consequences," he told the New York Times.
Typically users will have spent at least two hours a day online, playing games such as World of Warfareor using chat rooms, though some of the addicts say they were online for 17 hours a day. They even missed school to surf the web, which is a serious breach of discipline in a culture that values eduction extremely highly.
South Korea held a symposium on the problem in September, with leading experts on internet addiction from all over the world attending.
East Asia is very advanced in terms of the number of people with access to the internet and internet addiction is a problem in many parts of the continent.
The world's second largest internet market after the United States is China, with 162 million "webizens".
In September a Chinese man in the southern province of Guangdong dropped dead after playing internet games online for three days and a survey by the China Youth Association For Network Development revealed that more than 13 per cent of China's young people were addicted to the internet, while another 13 per cent were "prone to internet addiction". China operates a string of halfway houses to deal with the issue.
Mental health professionals classify internet addiction as an obsessive-compulsive disorder, with adolescents and those in their 50s experiencing "empty-nest syndrome" most likely to be affected.