A new study has found that students who spend more time online are more likely to suffer from mental health problems and suicidal thoughts.
Researchers at the Red Cross College of Nursing in Seoul, Korea, have made a shocking discovery that has huge implications for future parenting as devices such as laptops, tablets and smartphones become a staple of daily life in today’s world.
The research team is not convinced that frequent use of the Internet is detrimental to children’s mental health, or vice versa, and children with mental health problems are more likely to gravitate towards the Internet.
A mental health crisis among American children has erupted during the pandemic, coinciding with a dramatic increase in screen time and children spending significantly more time at home and indoors.
The researchers found that students who spent three or more hours a day online were 25% more likely to have suicidal thoughts, 17% more likely to report being stressed, and 10% more likely to experience sadness.
The researchers, who published their findings Wednesday in PLOS, collected data from almost 30,000 high school students aged 16 to 18 in Korea.
Each participant was asked about their daily non-academic Internet use and their mental health.
Like teenagers around the world, study participants were most likely to spend their time online on social media and instant messaging apps.
“One common aspect between teens from other countries and Korean teens is that they use messaging apps and social media the most,” the researchers wrote.
“Teens usually access the Internet using their mobile phones, and the increase in smartphone penetration in recent years has markedly contributed to the increase in the amount of time spent on the Internet.”
On average, students recorded about three hours of internet use each day, and women, poorer students, and students with poorer grades likely reported even more time.
Teens who spent less than three hours a day online were 33% more likely to report being in good health.
Those who use the Internet more are 17% more likely to report being stressed and 10% more likely to report feeling sad recently.
By far the most disturbing figure is that they were 25 percent more likely to have thought about suicide at some point in their lives.
The exact cause of this trend cannot be determined, but the research team has a few hunches.
“Adolescents’ excessive internet use has been reported to be associated with a decrease in overall physical and psychological functioning, which can lead to deterioration in real-life social skills, and as a result, these adolescents experience social isolation,” they wrote.
“In addition, it can impair learning habits, thereby lowering academic performance and increasing impulsivity and aggression.”
Internet use among teenagers has skyrocketed during Covid as many other activities to participate in have been cancelled.
Experts describe this excessive, addictive Internet use as “Problem Internet Use,” an unofficial but slowly researched condition that can afflict people.
Children’s internet use and screen time in general has skyrocketed during the pandemic, adding further troubling to the results of this study.
As children were sent home from school, suspended from extracurricular activities, and other major changes were made to their lives, many took refuge on the Internet to keep in touch with friends and distract from what was happening around them.
Parents were also more likely to let their kids spend more time online during the busy early months of Covid.
These factors have led to an increase in problematic Internet use over the past two years.
The research team believes that parents can play a role in managing their child’s Internet use and preventing problem behavior.
“Lack of parental, management support and supervision has been associated with increased time spent online,” they wrote.