Internet and Mobile Phone Addiction: Health and Educational Effects

Dear Colleagues,

A Special Issue on health and educational effects due to excessive Internet or mobile phone use (among other technological devices, applications, and factors promoting these emergent behavioural problems, basically promoted as being excessively connected online), in the International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health, is being organized. For detailed information on the journal, I refer you to http://www.mdpi.com/journal/ijerph.

According to the American Psychiatric Association (APA, 2013), apart from gambling, other non-substance or behavioural addictions, have been considered, such as Internet Gaming Disorder (IGD). This proposed addictive disorder was included in the appendix of the current fifth edition of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual (DSM-5), and can be classed as a future mental psychiatric illness if empirical research supports it. Similarly, the World Health Organisation (WHO, 2014) has included Gaming Disorder (GD) in the latest beta draft of the following eleventh International Classification of Diseases (ICD-11) with a clinical description and diagnosis guidelines discussed with international experts on Internet Use Disorder (IUD) and behavioural addictions. Furthermore, WHO has provided a report regarding public health implications of the excessive use of Internet and smartphones, among other electronic devices (WHO, 2014). Therefore, APA and WHO are considering the inclusion of other sub-syndromal behavioural addictions or namely ‘Disorders Due to Addictive Behaviours’ (e.g., hypersexual disorder) with online and/or offline settings. The number of these information and communication technologies (ICT), such as Internet and mobile technologies are expected to rise in the next years according to the International Telecommunication Union (ITU, 2015), an agency of the United Nations (UN), coordinating telecommunication operations and services throughout the world. However, we still do not know the potential number of people that already have or could develop these behavioural addictions through technologies per country. From an educational approach, the Programme for International Student Assessments (PISA), managed by The Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OCDE, 2015), is observing that off-line and online behaviours (e.g., digital vs. print reading) are quite variable intra-country and between-countries. This seems to affect the behaviour of browsing relative to effective navigation behaviour. The risk of these addictive and related Internet problems in educational settings, especially through smartphone use, has received increasing attention. As a result, disordered addictive behaviours supported by technologies, such as the Internet and mobile phones, have drawn interest, internationally, from different sectors. Firstly, in health care and social work, as a public health issue, and, secondly, in education, especially in secondary and tertiary levels, promoting ICT skills, teaching and learning processes through technologies.

Researchers and practitioners in this field have also been looking at advances in these potential behavioural addictions with respect to care, management, and prevention, including diagnosis, treatment, and co-morbidity. Developing strategies for reducing risk factors, which predispose the population, and understanding the nature of these problems (as a real addiction, as a form of copying other problems, as a developmental problem, as a contextual problem developed for the educational and professional demands) in terms of public health and educational impact of the condition is needed.

This Special Issue is dedicated to the subject area of these potential, Internet-related problems using technologies, such as computers and smartphones in relation to health and educational effects. The keywords listed below provide an outline of some of the possible areas of interest.

Dr. Olatz Lopez-Fernandez
Guest Editor

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