Action needed to curb addiction to sites like Facebook
Issued : Sunday 30 May, 2010
The EU can and should bring in new laws to protect people from the dangers of addiction to popular social networking sites such as Facebook, Labour MEP Nessa Childers has said today (Sunday, 30th May).
Ms. Childers, who is a psychotherapist by profession said, "There has been an explosion in recent years in the use of online social networking sites in particular Facebook, a facility I frequently use to keep in touch with constituents. I believe the disturbing levels of addiction to sites like Facebook, which has over 400,000 registered users in Ireland is sufficiently high as to warrant intervention and regulation by the EU.
"With the passing into force of the Lisbon Treaty, the EU now has increased powers to legislate when there is a threat to public health in Europe. I am today calling on the European Commission to submit proposals to the European Parliament to tackle this clear and present threat to the mental health of millions of European citizens.
"Using Facebook from time to time in order to interact with friends and family is all very well. However no guidelines or codes of conduct have been produced by the company to help prevent users becoming addicted. This is where transnational institutions must step in and subject such sites to the scrutiny of EU public health law.
"Visiting your Facebook page frequently causes what psychologists refer to as 'intermittent reinforcement'. Notifications, messages and invites reward you with an unpredictable high, much like gambling. That anticipation can get dangerously addictive. Visiting Facebook rewards you with virtual connections and friends. These connections then expand to fill an increasingly empty internal world creating a vicious circle.
"We can present on Facebook an unreal and flawless version of ourselves. Many people access their Facebook page once or twice a week however for others it has turned into a compulsion - and it is a compulsion to dissociate oneself from the real world in exchange for the apparently non-threatening parallel world of Facebook.
"The networking site is especially seductive when real life isn't going so well. In real life, people have bad breath and smelly feet and we argue about who's going to change the baby's nappy. But no such banalities exist in the virtual world. Working as a professional psychotherapist, I saw an exponential increase in addiction to internet pornography, a disturbing phenomenon which has wrecked relationships and lives. Action is needed at international level from the EU to properly take on the disturbing trend of addiction to sites such as Facebook which are responsible for all sorts of problematic behaviour."
