Problematic Internet use by children and adolescents from the parental perspective before and after the lockdown due to COVID-19

ABSTRACT

Problematic Internet use by children and adolescents has increased in recent years, causing negative consequences in the psychoemotional, physical, social, and academic development of minors. However, few studies have examined the change in problematic Internet use by minors following the pandemic. Thus, the main objective of this research was to study whether there has been an increase in problematic Internet use after the lockdown due to COVID-19, analyze if this increase is related to parental supervision and explore its link with age, gender, and non-educative online activities. This was a retrospective study including 156 parents of children (aged 5 to 16 years), who answered a set of questionnaires with good reliability to assess their children's problematic Internet use, the frequency of use of the activities that children perform on the Internet and the supervision that they give to their children. These variables were compared before and after the lockdown due to COVID-19. The results showed that there has been an increase in problematic Internet use by minors after the lockdown. On the other hand, the findings did not show a significant relationship between parental supervision and less problematic Internet use at either time point. It is noteworthy that parental supervision remained unchanged despite the increase in problematic Internet use after the lockdown. © 2023. Psy, Soc & Educ.