Broadband News

Are Britain’s teens addicted to broadband?

Friday 13 January, 2012

By Anthony Hill

Being hooked on the web can be as damaging as drug addiction.

New research has found that addiction to the internet disrupts nerve wiring in teenagers’ brains. Similar effects have been seen in people with alcohol and drug abuse problems.

Internet addiction disorder (IAD) has only recently been recognised as a genuine condition, characterised by extreme and “out of control” web usage. Sufferers spend so much time online that it actually impairs their quality of life.

Denied access to their computer, smartphone or tablet, an affected youngster may experience withdrawal symptoms, such as tremors, obsessive thoughts and involuntary typing movements of the hands.

The new study, from China, used a Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) technique to examine the effects of IAD on brain structure in young people. Scans were conducted on 17 internet-addicted teens and 16 who use the web moderately.

Those diagnosed with IAS had disrupted “white matter” nerve fibres connecting vital parts of the brain involved in emotions, decision making and self-control. Scientists used “fractional anisotropy” (FA) to assess the state of nerve fibres. Low FA was taken to mean structural damage in the brain.

Lead researcher Dr Hao Lei, from the Chinese Academy of Sciences in Wuhan, said: “Our findings suggest that IAD demonstrated widespread reductions of FA in major white matter pathways. Such abnormal white matter structure may be linked to some behavioural impairments.”

Earlier studies have shown these kinds of abnormalities in the brains of people exposed to alcohol, cocaine, cannabis, methamphetamine and ketamine, said the report, published in the online journal Public Library of Science ONE.

Dr Henrietta Bowden-Jones, consultant psychiatrist at Imperial College London, commented: “This type of research ... is groundbreaking as it makes clear links between internet addiction and other addictions, such as alcohol, cocaine and cannabis.”

She added, however, that IAD is currently classified as an “impulse control disorder” rather than genuine addiction. Further studies with much larger groups of teenagers would be needed before reclassification, Dr Bowden-Jones concluded.

Most of the UK’s main internet service providers (ISPs) now offer parental controls software as part of their broadband packages. BT, Sky, Virgin Media and TalkTalk all provide tools for parents to limit their children’s access to the internet.