Digital addiction fuelling mental health crisis among youth: Economic Survey

Digital addiction is emerging as a major health challenge among children and youth, worsening mental health outcomes, the Economic Survey 2025-26 said. It flagged rising social media and gaming dependence and outlined measures to promote digital wellness and safer technology use.

New Delhi: Digital addiction is growing as a significant health problem among children and the youth and is also contributing to the mental health crisis in the country, said the government on Thursday in the Economic Survey 2025-26.

The Survey tabled in the Parliament by the Union Minister for Finance and Corporate Affairs, Nirmala Sitharaman, noted that digital addiction is closely linked with the degrading mental health of the youth in the country.

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“Digital addiction negatively affects academic performance and workplace productivity due to distractions, ‘sleep debt’, and reduced focus. It also erodes social capital,” it said.

To address this problem, the CBSE has issued guidelines on safe internet use in schools and school buses. Other measures include the Ministry of Education’s Pragyatah framework, which guides digital education planning with attention to screen time, and the National Commission for Protection of Child Rights guidelines on screen time limits and online safety.

Further, the Survey also mentioned the high prevalence of social media addiction among those aged 15-24, which is strongly associated with anxiety, depression, low self-esteem, and cyberbullying stress.

Other issues plaguing Indian youth include compulsive scrolling, social comparison, and gaming disorders.

These are increasingly leading to sleep disruption, aggression, social withdrawal, and depression, with adolescent populations being especially vulnerable.

To address this issue, the government has taken multiple measures, the Survey said.

This includes the Tele-MANAS (Tele Mental Health Assistance and Networking Across States), which has since its launch in October 2022, received over 32 lakh calls; the SHUT (Service for Healthy Use of Technology) Clinic at NIMHANS, Bengaluru, which provides specialised care for excessive and compulsive technology use, focusing on adolescents and young adults; and he Online Gaming (Regulation) Act, 2025, which represents a major step to address digital addiction and financial harm among youth.

As digital access cannot be fully restricted, the Survey suggested the establishment of offline youth hubs, particularly in urban slums and rural areas, to provide alternatives to digital spaces; moderated online safe spaces hosted by schools or similar institutions.

“Schools play a critical role in shaping digital habits, and hence, they should introduce a Digital Wellness Curriculum covering screen time literacy, cyber safety, and mental health awareness,” it said, while calling for a “holistic approach, including physical and mental health, is essential to ensure a resilient future”.