Excessive internet use among young girls nearly doubles in Finland, raising health concerns

The excessive and harmful internet usage among young girls has seen a significant increase. The number of girls using the internet to the extent that it negatively impacts their mental health, studies, physical activity, or sleep has nearly doubled. Excessive internet use is defined as spending so much time online that it becomes difficult to regulate and results in problems for the user. These findings are based on research from the Finnish Institute for Health and Welfare, derived from the School Health Survey, which examines trends in youth internet usage from 2017 to 2023. The increase is observed across all school levels during this period, with girls using social media more extensively than boys.

Concerns about dependency-related symptoms are growing among researchers. About one-third of girls who do not use the internet excessively reported experiencing mild anxiety. In contrast, nearly double that figure, approximately 65 percent of girls who overuse the internet, reported similar anxiety levels. Excessive use also highlighted difficulties in reading, mathematics, and writing, as well as challenges in learning, remembering, and concentrating. Although the most severe issues affect a relatively small portion of youth, Olli Kiviruusu, the research director at THL, describes the trend as alarming.

“There has been a surprisingly rapid rise in dependency-type symptoms among girls. This is concerning,” he said. While reducing excessive internet usage is challenging, Kiviruusu remains hopeful that public discussions and efforts made in homes and schools will help redirect this trend positively in the future.