The use and problematic use of the Internet

According to Spanish Institute for Statistics ^{(INE) (2022)}, 94.9% of minors between 10 and 15 years of age are Internet users. In most European countries, including Spain, 9-to-11-year-olds use the internet two hours per day, increasing to four hours per day among 12-to-16-year-olds (^{Smahel et al., 2020}). Similarly, as indicated by ^{Andrade et al. (2021}), the percentage of minors aged 11-17 who spend more than 5 hours online increases significantly at weekends (50% at weekends compared to 31.6% during the week). While the Internet can provide them with both information and learning, it can also pose a serious threat and lead to risky situations (^{Castaño-Pulgarín et al., 2021}), such as problematic internet use. Although the DSM-5 does not consider it an addictive disorder, it has negative effects as it involves the recurrent need to connect to the Internet, deficiencies in self-regulation, and problems in daily life such as diminished family and social relationships (^{Caplan, 2010}).

From the parental perspective, problematic Internet use in minors has increased after confinement (^{Ponce-Gómez et al., 2023}) and the prevalence of this type of use among Spanish adolescents is 33% (^{Andrade et al., 2021}), so there is great social concern to prevent this risk due to the problems derived from it such as cyberbullying (^{Bautista et al., 2022}; ^{Kowalski et al., 2019}). Problematic internet use affects not only their social and communication skills but also the academic ones, as well as their emotional well-being and mental health (^{Yaycı, 2021}). Specifically, a recent meta-analysis concludes that it is associated with depression, anxiety, and loneliness symptoms, as well as with other mental health issues (^{Cai et al., 2023}).

Gender may play an important role in the study of problematic Internet use among adolescents and adults, however, with no conclusive results. Some papers argue that adolescent boys are the ones who show higher levels of problematic use. (^{Fumero et al., 2018}; ^{Su et al., 2019}). However, others conclude that girls are more likely to have this problem (^{Díaz-López et al., 2020})aggravated by the imminent consequences of such synergy. In order to deepen understanding of this relationship, the following research objectives were formulated: a. There is evidence that the motivations for internet use predict its problematic use depending on the gender (^{Cebollero-Salinas et al., 2021}). Specifically, boys use it as a source of amusement and in order to experience a sense of accomplishment, while girls use it as a way to escape, engage in social interactions and seek academic support (^{Su et al., 2020}).

The evidence of the prevalence of problematic internet use and its negative impact on adolescents, as well as the extensive use of the internet in primary education, makes it necessary to study such behavior at this stage in order to address its early prevention.

Problematic use of video games

Just as the use of the internet can produce benefits, video games have been linked to improved intelligence, memory, the ability to solve problems, and to develop social skills (^{Griffiths, 2019}). Cooperation in video games shows psychological and well-being benefits (^{Shoshani et al., 2021}), increases motivation, and promotes sharing, collaboration, and healthy relationships in childhood (^{Alanko, 2023}; ^{Carras et al., 2017}). However, these benefits seem to be reduced or even eliminated when the gamer transforms this entertainment into an obsession or a way to escape from reality (^{Griffiths, 2019}).

So far, most studies have focused on adolescence. When gaming becomes problematic, studies show higher levels of depression, anxiety, poor school performance, and behavioral problems, such as aggression or impulsivity, as well as a tendency to displace educational and social activities (^{Shoshani et al., 2021}). Regarding its relationship with problematic internet use, to the authors' knowledge there are only studies on adolescents where the relation between both problematic uses is evidenced and where they act as mutual predictors (^{Tas, 2019}; ^{Tras, 2019}), so it is reasonable to hypothesize that it could be similar in the primary stage.

Studies on primary education students are scarce and mostly descriptive. In Spain, a very large study of minors aged 11-18 found that 26.4% of boys and 6.6% of girls use videogames problematically (^{Andrade et al., 2021}), which gives an idea of the extent of this risk among minors. Moreover, it is directly associated with higher levels of overt aggression and relational victimization in primary education students (^{Chacón-Chuberos et al., 2018}). Therefore, at this stage, it may be a relevant problem and requires further study.

The relevance of family supervision in the use of the Internet

Families are the first mediators between their children and digital tools, as well as the key to their healthy use (^{Benedetto & Ingrassia, 2020}). In this sense, the parenting styles at home could influence such use, i.e., excessive control or excessive laxity do not seem to reinforce children's positive internet activities, so a parenting style focused on support, teaching appropriate internet use, and enforcing relevant rules ultimately provides greater benefits for their digital development (^{Sasson & Mesch, 2016}; ^{Song et al., 2020}).

In this regard, ^{Coyne et al. (2017}) provides two styles of supervision with great benefits: instructional mediation and shared use. The first focuses on active participation in the use, e.g.: explaining the content of web pages or how to use a device properly; while the second focuses on approaching the internet with the children in order to teach them how to do it in the most appropriate way, e.g.: visiting suitable web pages together or playing video games. Similarly, ^{Sasson and Mesch (2016}) have shown that restrictive strategies, such as setting usage rules and schedules and choosing appropriate apps, can promote healthy internet use. Conversely, the absence of parental supervision or an inappropriate use of the internet by parents or guardians negatively affects how their children use it (^{Benedetto & Ingrassia, 2020}). On the other hand, research suggests that the type of advice typically given to households tends to focus on protecting children's privacy and security rather than teaching them how to use technology appropriately for their benefit (^{Harris & Jacobs, 2022}). In any case, family supervision proves to be a protective factor for online risks such as excessive smartphone use (^{Chang et al., 2019}) and problematic internet use, especially in preadolescents and girls (^{Cebollero-Salinas et al., 2021}).

Given the relevance of the study variables for healthy digital use and the scarce literature analyzing their relationship in primary school children, this paper aims to examine, in a gender differentiated way, whether time spent on the internet on weekdays and weekends, family supervision, and problematic video game use predict problematic internet use.

Method

Results

Table 1 shows the descriptive analyses of the study variables in which significant differences between boys and girls are found for all variables, except time spent using the Internet during the week. Thus, boys reach higher values, although with a small effect size in problematic Internet use and time spent using the Internet on the weekend, and a larger effect size in problematic video game use.

Regarding the correlations between variables (Table 2), both in girls and boys problematic Internet use correlates significantly and positively with the rest of the variables, reaching medium and high values. The largest gender differences are found in the relationship between problematic use of video games and problematic use of the Internet (.7 boys vs .59 girls), problematic Internet use and weekday internet use time (.47 boys vs .59 girls), and between problematic video game use and weekday internet use time (.38 boys vs .21 girls). All of them are higher for boys, but the difference is not significant. On the other hand, family supervision is significantly associated with and inversely proportional to the other variables, but only for girls.

Tables 3 and 4 show the results of the multiple regression equations for girls and boys, respectively. The value of the Durbin-Watson statistic is 1.901, low tolerances and VIF somewhat greater than 1, eigenvalues not close to 0, condition index below 20, variance ratios below 0.5.

The variables that have been introduced into the model explain a large variability of students' problematic Internet use. In the case of girls, the model explains 50.4% and in the case of boys, 62.5% of the variability. The variables that have been included in both regression equations are the same except in the case of family supervision, which is only found for girls and as a protective factor. The other variables have positive coefficients and are therefore reported as risk factors. In addition to problematic video game use, it is time spent on the Internet on weekdays that accounts for the greatest variability in problematic Internet use compared to time spent on the Internet at weekends (e.g., .105 weekdays .019 weekends for boys). In addition, there are some differences in the values of the coefficients for each of the models. On the one hand, boys had higher coefficient values of problematic video game use (.451 girls vs. .534 boys) and weekday Internet use (.255 girls vs. .284 boys). However, with respect to weekend Internet use, these values are somewhat higher for girls.

Discussion

The main objective of this study is to analyze, differentiating by gender, whether problematic video game use, family supervision, as well as time of Internet use on weekdays and weekends, predict problematic Internet use among students in 5th and 6th grades of primary school.

Firstly, the descriptive results show that, among 10-12-year-olds, there are gender differences in problematic Internet use, with boys showing higher levels. These results are consistent with some studies in adolescents, such as ^{Su et al. (2019}), and could be due to the different motivations girls and boys have when using the Internet, with girls more likely to use it for escape and boys more likely to use it for entertainment or personal achievement (^{Cebollero-Salinas et al., 2021}; ^{Griffiths, 2019}; ^{Su et al., 2020}).

In terms of predicting problematic Internet use, the results show that problematic use of video games is the most important risk factor for both girls and boys, although to a greater extent for boys. Given the existing lack of studies analyzing the relationship between both problematic uses in primary school students, this result would be novel and would highlight that problematic use of video games is also relevant at these ages, as is the case in studies with adolescents (^{Tas, 2019}; ^{Tras, 2019}). Playing video games is one of the main sources of leisure for minors aged 9 to 11, especially boys (^{Smahel et al., 2020}). Given that studies show that minors with problematic video game use are more likely to be aggressive (^{Chacón-Chuberos et al., 2018}), impulsive (^{Irles et al., 2016}), have higher levels of anxiety, depression, and poor school performance (^{Shoshani et al., 2021}), training programs are needed for proper family mediation, both in terms of time spent and video game content. In fact, the rates of possible problematic use are tripled among those who play PEGI 18 video games and among those who connect to the Internet or use the cell phone or game console after midnight (^{Andrade et al., 2021}).

The second risk factor that influences the prediction of problematic Internet use is the time spent using the internet during the week, i.e., during school days. This is important for both genders and seems reasonable given that weekend use is higher for both genders (^{Andrade et al., 2021}), so whether or not they use the Internet during the week could be more discriminative in predicting problematic Internet use.

A third risk factor in predicting problematic Internet use, although weaker than in the previous case, is the time spent using the internet during the weekend, for both girls and boys. This result could be related to girls and boys using the internet for leisure and free time, although they do so differently (^{Malo-Cerrato et al., 2018}; ^{Park & Lee, 2014}). According to these lines, the study conducted by ^{Marcos et al. (2021}) found that the average age of opening a first account in social networks is exactly in the range of students between 10 and 12 years old, the average time of using these social networks is between 2 and 3 hours for girls and 1-2 hours for boys. However, the main use is to play video games. This usage could indicate that today's children have learned to entertain themselves primarily through digital devices, with little ability to be bored or to seek out other activities away from the screens. Although it should not be forgotten that its good use can bring great benefits (^{Shoshani et al., 2021}), it would be necessary to promote digital balance in leisure time from an early age. Similarly, the lack of rules within the family and the absence of family members at home for part of the day could encourage children to seek new sensations on the Internet, to escape boredom, to feel recognized, and to reaffirm their self-esteem, for example through video games (^{Díaz-López et al., 2020}; ^{Gómez et al., 2022}).

Finally, it is relevant that the results show the protective role of family supervision in the face of problematic Internet use, but only in the case of girls. Some previous studies conducted in samples of adolescents and young adults follow the same lines (^{Cebollero-Salinas et al., 2021}; ^{Sasson & Mesch, 2016}; ^{Song et al., 2020}). A possible explanation for this result could be the fact that the most valued advice in households, regardless of age, is that which focuses on privacy and security issues (^{Harris & Jacobs, 2022}). If so, given that boys spend more time playing video games than girls when they are online (^{Díaz-López et al., 2020}; ^{Su et al., 2020}), it may be possible that families do not consider it necessary to accompany their children when they play. Another line of explanation could be related to how far parents feel from their children's use of the Internet (the video games themselves), which makes it difficult for them to give advice, if any at all (^{Coyne et al., 2017}). It may be that families are more protective of girls because they have more control and knowledge about their internet use (^{Sasson & Mesch, 2016}; ^{Song et al., 2020}).

In terms of accompanying the responsible and healthy use of the Internet, ^{Shin and Kang (2016}) indicate that dialogue, leading, and guiding children through online activities (active mediation) works better than restrictive mediation, so it would be advisable to promote training in homes to learn how to talk about technology and Internet issues. In fact, ^{Benedetto and Ingrassia (2020)} point out that family acts as a mediator between children and digital tools, favoring the adaptive use of the Internet. Prevention and education from an early age would be relevant to avoid negative consequences, such as occasional or frequent psychopathological problems (^{Vicente-Escudero et al., 2019}). However, Spain is among the European countries with the lowest levels of family mediation, both in terms of time control and types of use or content consumed (^{Smahel et al., 2020}). This suggests the need to promote collaboration between family and school, as well as other institutions, in order to improve the training of parents in these aspects and incorporate digital guidance habits at home.

Within the educational sphere, these issues shall be addressed in primary education classrooms for prevention in a coordinated manner with families. Thus, different learning methodologies such as gamification can be used to promote the responsible use of the Internet and video games, working on both their virtues and the indicators of their problematic use. Having the necessary skills and support from adults to deal with their approach to digital devices before entering adolescence can improve both the necessary coexistence in the classroom and cybercoexistence within social networks for primary school students (^{Cebollero-Salinas et al., 2022}).

This study is not without limitations. On the one hand, the sample size has been obtained for convenience and is limited to one region of Spain. It would be useful to increase the number of participants and the variety of contexts in future works. On the other hand, the data have been collected through online questionnaires, so it would be desirable to complement them with more qualitative instruments such as interviews. Finally, future studies should integrate other variables related to problematic internet and video game use such as self-esteem, personality, social support from friends (^{Malo-Cerrato et al., 2018}), as well as the need to compete and to escape from reality (^{Carras et al., 2017}) in order to have a more global view at these ages.

Despite its limitations, this study presents novel results, particularly due to the lack of studies relating the variables analyzed in children under 10-12 years of age and using gender as a differential variable. Thus, problematic use of video games is a risk factor for the problematic use of Internet in the case of both genders, although boys are more affected. On the other hand, children who spend more time online on weekdays are more like to develop a problematic internet use than those who are on the internet during the weekend. Finally, with regard to family supervision, only girls benefit from its protective factor. Therefore, this study provides evidence to suggest the need to emphasize the importance of digital balance during primary education, to promote face-to-face leisure as an alternative to video games, and to encourage family supervision.