Digital addiction in children: ‘I treat children who spend the weekend in their room with their cellphones’

Cellphones are addictive for young people. That’s the message from psychologists, who warn that they are treating a growing number of underage patients with complex issues related to their digital lives. And it’s a fact that’s been acknowledged by some of the world’s largest platforms, who are facing a cascade of lawsuits in the U.S. For designing products to keep users hooked. The court testimony given last week by Mark Zuckerberg, owner and CEO of Meta (the parent company of Facebook, Instagram, and WhatsApp), shows how serious the issue is: it is the first time the magnate has set foot in a courtroom, and he is doing so in a trial meant to determine whether his social networks are addictive or not.

There is also growing consensus among scientists about the health implications of excessive screen exposure at early ages. Last summer, the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA) published an editorial describing how addictive screen use affects adolescents’ mental health. It highlights a series of worrying patterns: 48% of teenagers lose control of the time they spend on their phones, 25% use social media to “forget about their problems,” another 25% constantly think about apps even when they are not using them, and 11% acknowledge screen use has had a negative impact on their academic performance. Seventeen percent have tried to reduce their social media use but have been unable to do so. The article emphasizes that addictive patterns — rather than total screen time — are the strongest predictors of poorer mental health.

“I’ve treated children who arrive at school on Mondays exhausted despite not having left the house. The weekend flew by for them; they were constantly on their phones without leaving their rooms,” says Aurora Gómez, a clinical psychologist specializing in digital behavior at the Corio Psychology practice.

“Addicts need constant gratification, and increasingly intense gratification,” she continues. “They lose their way, lose interest in things that were once important, like their studies or sports, and are unable to manage their time. To talk about addiction, we have to consider several factors: how many hours a day they are online, what symptoms they show when they disconnect [irritability, anxiety], whether they experience withdrawal symptoms when they are not connected, and the impact it has on other areas of their lives [i.e. What they stop doing to stay connected, like not going to their grandparents’ village because there’s no internet]. ”

Another red flag is that, even when the person is aware that this behavior has negative consequences in several areas of their life, they continue doing it.

How does an addiction develop?

When asked how does an addiction develop, José Antonio Molina, a professor at the Complutense University of Madrid, explains: “There isn’t a specific timeframe; it depends on each individual’s personal factors that make them more vulnerable.”

“But we do know that the potential for addiction is higher in younger children,” he continues. “Therefore, the question is whether it’s appropriate for children aged 10 or younger to have a cellphone when their self-control and ability to anticipate consequences are not yet neurologically developed, and they are not equipped to process all these issues.”

The effects of addiction are different in adults than in children or adolescents. “Young children have brain structures that are not yet fully developed. For example, the prefrontal cortex, the center that directs our decisions, the structure that helps us plan,” explains María Ferreira, a psychologist specializing in addiction problems.

“The same is true for the reward system, which results in greater impulsivity and a sense of urgency and immediacy,” she continues. “In adolescents, the cellphone becomes a tool that allows them to connect with others, belong to a group, and feel validated. Like everything, it has its downside: if I’m not constantly and immediately available, I run the risk of feeling left out or excluded.”

Several factors can make young people more prone or vulnerable to addiction. Molina highlights three: “How they see their parents using screens; how their own friends use their phones, because this can create a contagion effect; and then the individual personality traits of each child, such as whether they are more or less impulsive.”

Designed to keep users hooked

For years, the impact of social media platforms on mental health was ignored. That is, until 2021, when former Facebook employee Frances Haugen leaked hundreds of official documents to The Wall Street Journal demonstrating, among other things, that Instagram executives knew the platform was exposing young users to toxic content because it was more addictive and easier to monetize. The revelation triggered a wave of lawsuits consolidated into four class‑action lawsuits that have now brought Zuckerberg to court.

The rise of mental health problems associated with cellphones sparked a debate in the field of psychology a few years ago: can something that isn’t a substance be addictive? The majority opinion among professionals is that it can. These are usually considered behavioral addictions; there isn’t a specific “digital” category in the World Health Organization’s (WHO) diagnostic manuals. What makes cellphones so addictive is that they are a window to many worlds at once. They are the gateway to social media, as well as to digital pornography, online gambling, and the consumption of extremely violent content. Any one of these fronts can generate addiction on its own.

The young patients Gómez treats, who usually come to her with their parents, are children who have grown up surrounded by cellphones. “For generations like ours, the digital sphere was separate from the rest of the world. Now, everything revolves around cellphones,” she says. “That’s why one of the first detox measures I propose is to separate functions: a phone without internet for calls, an MP3 player for listening to music, a computer for playing video games… So they see that these are different things.”

Screen exposure itself doesn’t have to be harmful: young people can spend hours learning to code, design, or compose music, for example. The problem lies in the behaviors that develop around this consumption. In some cases, Gómez has treated young people who have lost social skills due to the compulsive use of social media. “How am I supposed to go out on the street if I can’t mute the person who’s talking to me, if I can’t block someone I don’t like?” A patient once told her.

Then comes the difficult process of returning to normality. To detox someone addicted to drugs, it’s advisable to remove them from their circle of friends and, once the addiction is treated, forbid them from returning to their old neighborhood to avoid the temptation of relapsing. The problem with digital addictions is that it’s not so easy to avoid screens, which are omnipresent in daily life.

For Gómez, children are like frogs in a pond. They are the most adaptable animals, the ones with the greatest capacity to change. But they are also the most vulnerable. At the slightest change in temperature or alkalinity of the pond water, frogs are the first to die. “When we look at the amount of psychological suffering children are experiencing right now, we have to remember that they are the frogs in the pond,” she says. “We must prioritize their well-being, but without forgetting that we are part of a digital ecosystem and that everyone else is also part of it and is also under threat.”

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