Preventing problematic internet use during the COVID-19 pandemic: Consensus guidance
By Orsolya Király, Marc N. Potenza, D. Stein, Daniel L. King, David C. Hodgins, J. Saunders, Mark D. Griffiths, B. Gjoneska, Joël Billieux, Matthias Brand and 21 more. Comprehensive Psychiatry, 2020
705 citations recorded by the source corpus.
As a response to the COVID-19 pandemic, many governments have introduced steps such as spatial distancing and “staying at home” to curb its spread and impact. The fear resulting from the disease, the ‘lockdown’ situation, high levels of uncertainty regarding the future, and financial insecurity raise the level of stress, anxiety, and depression experienced by people all around the world. Psychoactive substances and other reinforcing behaviors (e.g., gambling, video gaming, watching pornography) are often used to reduce stress and anxiety and/or to alleviate depressed mood. The tendency to use such substances and engage in such behaviors in an excessive manner as putative coping strategies in crises like the COVID-19 pandemic is considerable. Moreover, the importance of information and communications technology (ICT) is even higher in the present crisis than usual. ICT has been crucial in keeping parts of the economy going, allowing large groups of people to work and study from home, enhancing social connectedness, providing greatly needed entertainment, etc. Although for the vast majority ICT use is adaptive and should not be pathologized, a subgroup of vulnerable individuals are at risk of developing problematic usage patterns. The present consensus guidance discusses these risks and makes some practical recommendations that may help diminish them.
Subfields: Applied Psychology, Clinical Psychology, Sociology and Political Science
View Paper: https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/96d234fbe120af2a5890349b2d9e645d48038c42
How researchers see this paper
The researchers whose trusted networks rank it highest, strongest advocate first. Every researcher gets a different order.
In Applied Psychology
In Clinical Psychology
In Sociology and Political Science
Citations in the corpus
- Global prevalence of gaming disorder: A systematic review and meta-analysis (2020, background): “On the contrary, there may be a general increase in gaming and associated problem gaming in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic (i.e. due to stay-at-home mandates and lockdowns) which may counteract this potential decrease (King et al., 2020c; Király et al., 2020).”
- The impact of COVID-19 lockdown on internet use and escapism in adolescents (2020, background): “…from Wuhan (China), where the virus emerged, show that children and adolescents are therefore facing the consequences of lockdown, one of which is being sedentary (Xiang, Zhang, & Kuwahara, 2020) and engaging in problematic internet use as a method of coping and escapism (Király et al., 2020).”
- Social Networks Consumption and Addiction in College Students during the COVID-19 Pandemic: Educational Approach to Responsible Use (2020, background): “There is certainly a high risk of an increase in addictions [47–51], including those related to digital media and social networks [52,53].”
- Adolescent gaming and social media usage before and during the COVID-19 pandemic (2021, neutral): “Relevant lifestyle and internet-specifi c advice on the prevention of problematic user behavior under the COVID-19 pandemic is given in the consensus guidance by Király et al (2020).”