What is formally recognised
The World Health Organization added gaming disorder to its International Classification of Diseases (ICD-11) in 2019, defining it as loss of control over gaming, increasing priority given to it over other activities, and continuation despite negative consequences, over at least twelve months. The broader notion of "internet addiction" remains scientifically contested: many researchers argue it is less a dependence on the medium than on specific activities it enables — gaming, social media, pornography, shopping, gambling.
A little history
The worry was born with games: the arcades of the late 1970s — Space Invaders dates from 1978 — and then consoles gave rise to the word "hooked" applied to a pastime. In 1995 the New York psychiatrist Ivan Goldberg invented "internet addiction disorder" as a joke; the following year Kimberly Young presented the first serious studies, and in the 2000s China opened treatment centres, sometimes military-style, for teenagers.
The smartphone of 2007 and social networks changed everything: the subject was no longer a small group of gamers but the whole population, and the attention-capturing mechanisms — infinite feed, notifications, short videos — are designed by the platforms themselves. In 2019 the WHO entered "gaming disorder" in the international classification of diseases, in force since 2022; it does not, to date, recognise addiction to social networks or to the smartphone as a diagnosis.
Responses have become legislative: phones banned in French lower secondary schools in 2018, social networks banned for under-16s in Australia, applied since December 2025, and the European Digital Services Act, which has prohibited targeted advertising to minors since 2024. Research itself remains divided on the real size of the effects — which is no reason not to act when a habit has taken over everything.
Warning signs
- Inability to cut down despite wanting to.
- Progressive abandonment of social, academic or work activities.
- Marked irritability or anxiety when unable to connect.
- Using screens to escape difficult emotions rather than for occasional entertainment.
- Lying to others about time spent online.
Intense use for a period — a holiday, a temporary obsession with one game — is not in itself pathological. It is persistence over months, with real impact on daily life, that matters.
Social media and mental health
Several studies, particularly in adolescents, associate very heavy social media use with lower self-esteem and more anxious and depressive symptoms, largely through constant social comparison. Causality remains debated: young people already struggling may also gravitate towards these uses. Policy is moving faster than the evidence: minimum ages for social media accounts, age-assurance duties on platforms and parental-consent requirements have all been legislated in the last two years, with the detail differing sharply by country.
Practical approaches
- Set screen-free zones and times (meals, bedrooms at night) rather than blanket bans, which tend to backfire.
- Use built-in screen-time tools to get an objective picture: actual use is usually well above the estimate.
- With a teenager, favour dialogue over confiscation, and try to understand what the use is compensating for — boredom, social isolation, anxiety.
- Seek help from a GP or psychologist if there is a marked effect on sleep, schooling or relationships.