One in ten girls uses social media in a problematic way

According to a survey, about seven percent of Swiss schoolchildren have problems using social networks. Girls are more than twice as affected as boys, Sucht Schweiz said Monday.

According to the representative study, in 2022 almost twice as many of the 11 to 15-year-old girls surveyed suffered from a loss of control over their own social media use than in the last study in 2018.

The authors of the study attribute this increase to the special circumstances of the corona pandemic at the time of the study. On the other hand, the proportion of affected boys remained unchanged at around four percent.

Many online most of the day

According to the study, eight out of ten boys and nine out of ten girls aged 15 use social networks such as WhatsApp, Snapchat, TikTok or Instagram on a daily basis. About every sixth boy (16 percent) and more than every fifth girl (22 percent) also report having online contact with other people “almost all day”.

Under the auspices of the World Health Organization Europe, the Health Behavior in School-aged Children Survey (HBSC), conducted every four years, examines various health-related behaviors of 11- to 15-year-olds.

Problematic gaming

According to the announcement, national data on problem gaming among young people are now available for the first time. 31 percent of boys and 5 percent of girls aged 15 played online video games daily.

The study authors estimate that of those who use such games, about three percent have problem gaming behaviors (boys and girls about the same).

Sucht Schweiz conducted the survey for the tenth time in 2022. Participation in the study was voluntary and anonymous. The final national sample includes 9345 girls and boys.

Sources

(saw/sda)