Internet Addiction Rehab??

I recently read an article from Spectrum Magazine title "China's e-Junkies Head for Rehab" by Jen Lin-Liu. Jen tells us about Qin Xinle's teenage son who stopped eating meals regularly and refused to go to school. Jen mentioned that this teenager was sometimes so engrossed in an online game that he would play for a 24 hour stretch! This got me wondering about Internet Addiction and whether it's real or not? Could it be that Qin Xinle is a bad parent and has simply lost control of his son? Or maybe this boy is just your typical bratty teenager. Qin Xinle ended up driving 5-hours to admit his son to Internet Addiction Rehab which is 20-days of treatment and costs $1000. I'm wondering is there any reason to send the boy to Internet Rehab or could this situation be dealt with differently?

I decided to look-up the definition of addiction. The Addiction Intervention Resources (AIR) defines addiction as:

Addiction is defined as the compulsive need for and use of something that is psychologically or physically habit-forming, characterized by tolerance and by well-defined physiological symptoms upon withdrawal; Being abnormally tolerant to and dependent upon a habit forming substance.

What matters most is whether or not the substance or behavior causes what we now know to be the essence of addiction: uncontrollable, compulsive drug craving, seeking, and use, even in the face of negative health and social consequences.  

This definition has two criteria, a compulsive or uncontrollable need for something and having physiological symptoms upon withdrawal. Based on AIR's definition of addiction I would not say that Qin's son had a "compulsive" need for the internet. Jen said he played constantly, but that doesn't mean it was uncontrollable. She doesn't mention whether Qin's son had physical withdrawal symptoms, but I couldn't imagine what those symptoms might be. Finger twitching maybe?? Qin's son wasn't sleeping, but that wasn't upon withdrawal, rather it was caused by the Internet.

I also decided to attempt to find some psychological studies on the subject but I only found surveys, which really didn't answer my question.

Personally I don't believe in Internet Addiction. I especially don't believe in Internet Addiction Rehab, where they basically begin controlling the person environment. The entire Internet Addiction Program, minus the shock treatments and antidepressants (which may be used to make it seem like this is a real issue), says to me that this is more of a personal/parental control issue rather then a true addiction

Please leave your opinion, especially if you know someone who has been labeled an Internet Addict or has actually been treated in Internet Addiction Rehab.