SINGAPORE – Children and teenagers can’t take their eyes off their gadgets and smartphone screens, fueling an addiction problem and increasing behavioral problems.
Counselors and social workers in Singapore say more young people are dealing with various forms of digital addiction, from excessive use of social media and the Internet to countless hours spent on games and pornography.
They told The Straits Times that devices are here to stay, and it is almost inevitable that the battle with technology for children’s attention will grow.
Touch Community Services, which runs a counseling program for youth struggling with excessive use of digital devices, saw about 111 such cases in 2022, up 58 percent from 70 in 2019.
We Care Community Services, an addiction recovery center, said it has seen over 20 percent more referrals for gambling addiction after the pandemic, compared to pre-Covid-19 years like 2019.
More questions and calls from schools and parents about digital addiction issues have also come in over the past three years, it said.
Many inquiries come from parents seeking guidance and advice on how to deal with children who are showing signs that they may be overly attached to their devices, says We Care Clinical Director Tham Yuen Han.
Andrea Chan, assistant director of Touch Mental Wellness, said the agency has dealt with cases of youths who dropped out of school because of their gambling habits, threatened suicide when their parents turned off home Wi-Fi, or ran away from home when their parents stopped them from gambling.
Cases would appear when parents notice a drop in their children’s grades, reduced family involvement or time with their friends, she added.
Dr Melvyn Zhang, consultant at the Institute of Mental Health’s (IMH) National Addiction Management Service (Nams), said digital addiction issues, including gaming addiction and excessive use of digital devices, are becoming increasingly relevant, especially among children.
As technology becomes more embedded in daily life, concerns are growing about the potential impact on mental health and well-being, he said.
Nams typically sees people aged 13 and over for issues related to digital device use or addiction. Because Internet addiction is categorized under a broader spectrum of behavioral addictions in its data, the IMH does not have figures for the digital addiction cases it sees annually.
Almost half of Singaporean youth aged 15 to 21 have “problematic smartphone use”, according to research by IMH reported in August.
This was defined in terms of dependence on devices, time spent on them and the problems caused, such as users feeling anxious without their devices and experiencing physical discomfort such as pain in the wrists or neck from prolonged use of smartphones.
The study found that affected individuals were at least three times more likely than those without problematic smartphone use to have symptoms of moderate or severe depression, anxiety and insomnia.
In another study by the IMH released in September, more than one in four young people here reported using social media excessively – more than three hours a day.
About one in five young people had been bullied online through mean, aggressive or rude online messages. Those who experienced such bullying were about twice as likely to have had severe or extremely severe symptoms of depression, anxiety or stress.
One girl, who spoke to ST on condition of anonymity, said she had depressive thoughts after spending excessive time on social media and receiving hateful messages online.
