Internet addiction and the increasing prevalence of screens and social media in the lives of children and adolescents have been a hot topic. There has been much public discussion and intense public debate about the ways that digital life has changed the experience of growing up, both in the United States and worldwide. And while it is clear to anyone who has watched a roomful of teenagers hunched silently over the phones that online life has drastically changed some aspects of adolescence, it is important to look at solid evidence of the implications of those changes when available. A new study published in PLOS Mental Health attempts to do just that.

Lead author Max Chang reviewed a dozen articles that used fMRI to observe the brains of adolescents between the ages of 10-19 who had been clinically diagnosed with Internet addiction. The criteria........

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