Net&Me BootStRaP

Follow us for exciting and valuable insights from the research findings—we’ll keep you updated on our social networks! We are an international multidisciplinary consortium bringing together scientists from 14 countries and 22 institutions. Our collaboration aims to initiate changes in current health and social policies, and practices designed to reduce the harmful effects of digitalisation on mental health, particularly amongst young people. Therefore, we are initiating research in 9 countries involving thousands of youth representatives, and the results will be published for public consumption. We call this project BootStRaP: Boosting Societal Adaptation and Mental Health in a Rapidly Digitalizing, Post-Pandemic Europe. The study follows the success of the European Network for Problematic Use of the Internet (2018-2022), which significantly advanced global understanding of the links between health, internet use, and behaviours such as excessive gambling, gaming, viewing pornography, compulsive shopping and ‘cyberchondria’. The network’s findings contributed to breakthroughs including the adoption of Gaming Disorder as a diagnosable disorder by the WHO.