New research will uncover the risk indicators of harmful internet use among teenagers

The Bootstrap project (Boosting Societal Adaptation and Mental Health in a Rapidly Digitalizing, Post-Pandemic Europe) is a new, Europe-wide study that will monitor how young people use the internet, understand which behaviours lead to harm and determine how these can be addressed.

Selected by Horizon Europe for a €7.5 million funding grant, the project is the first large-scale, standardised analysis of the impact of internet use on young people with such a broad and diverse range of participants. The results will be used to produce policy recommendations to address Problematic Use of the Internet (PUI) on an international scale.

Conducted using a specially-created phone app, researchers – led by Naomi Fineberg, Professor of Psychiatry at the University of Hertfordshire and the Hertfordshire Partnership University NHS Foundation Trust – will monitor how thousands of volunteer teenagers from a broad range of European locations, cultures, socioeconomic backgrounds and education systems, use the internet on a day-to day basis. The app will log factors including time of internet use, length of access, content viewed and how it is interacted with, for researchers to form an understanding of behavioural patterns and identify how they may lead to harm or poor health.

Participants will also be offered information on healthier ways of using the internet, to determine how changes in behaviour can move people out of the risk category and avoid future conditions associated with Problematic Use of the Internet (PUI).

The study brings together leading international researchers, including those from the Universities of Cambridge and Southampton in the UK, as well as global experts collaborating with the World Health Organization.

University of Hertfordshire and the Hertfordshire Partnership University NHS Foundation Trust Professor of Psychiatry, Dr Fineberg, said:

"This isn’t a campaign against internet use. It goes without saying that the internet has transformed our society bringing huge benefits to many parts of life – and the very existence of online gambling, shopping or gaming isn’t a bad thing in itself. However, there is clear evidence that internet use does go hand-in-hand with some harmful behaviours that are affecting people’s health and wellbeing. We need to have a way of identifying and unpicking what these damaging behaviours are, and who is most at risk, to enable effective early intervention.

"When we launched our original PUI research network in 2018, we were already looking at an explosion of internet use over the previous decade. What we couldn’t have known then, is that a global pandemic would force even more of our interactions into an online space.

"Over 90% of teenagers in the UK now own a smartphone, which is why we’re focusing on young people. They are the online generation, so it’s important to help them develop healthy internet use before it causes harm, as well as supporting parents, carers, teachers and medical professionals to understand the risks".

The five-year Bootstrap study follows the success of the European Network for Problematic Usage of the Internet (2018-2022), also led by Professor Fineberg, which significantly advanced global understanding of the links between health, internet use, and behaviours such as excessive gambling, gaming, viewing pornography, compulsive shopping and ‘cyberchondria’. The network’s findings contributed to breakthroughs including the adoption of Gaming Disorder as a diagnosable disorder by the World Health Organisation.