Countries should consider regulating digital devices like smartphones

[noumoe]

Countries should consider regulating digital devices like smartphones in a similar way to tobacco products, to combat social media's rising negative impact on young people's mental health, the World Health Organization’s Natasha Azzopardi Muscat said.

With increasing evidence that problematic gaming and social media behavior is on the rise among adolescents in Europe, countries should take inspiration from other areas of public health where legislation has helped address potentially damaging habits — such as tobacco laws, she said.

Measures including age limits, controlled prices and even no-go zones worked for regulating tobacco, so they could be taken as an example for how to curb damaging use of handheld devices like smartphones, Azzopardi Muscat, director of country health policies and systems at WHO Europe, told POLITICO on the sidelines of the European Health Forum, in Gastein, Austria.

“Maybe we need to think about where it is appropriate to use digital devices, and maybe it's also time to start thinking about places where certain digital devices should not be used,” just as we have banned smoking in certain areas, she said.



https://www.politico.eu/article/educati ... addiction/