

A day of retail therapy can be just the ticket for some people to help them feel better about themselves. But what happens when you can't stop shopping? Surrounded by racks of shirts, dresses and jumpers, Lucy tells me that she could spend up to 14 hours a day searching out new clothes as an escape from reality.
Read More
New Zealand should copy the Australian ban on social media for children under 16, a public health researcher says. The Australian government said it would pass a law banning social media for children under 16. Prime Minister Anthony Albanese announced yesterday that a bill will be introduced to parliament within weeks.
Read More
Hundreds of millions of dollars of grants go to community groups every year from gambling, including pokies, Lotto and casinos – but legal online casinos wouldn’t have to, under new government plans. Steve Kilgallon reports.
Read More
New data from the WHO Regional Office for Europe reveals a sharp rise in problematic social media use among adolescents, with rates increasing from 7% in 2018 to 11% in 2022. This, coupled with findings that 12% of adolescents are at risk of problematic gaming, raises urgent concerns about the impact of digital technology on the mental health and well-being of young people.
Read More
The amount our kids use technology, including social media, is the number one worry for 70% of New Zealand parents, according to the latest State of the Nation Parenting Survey from NIB. Now get this stat: 50% of parents admit they are addicted to their own devices.
Read More
The survey, which nib conducts annually with global research company, One Picture, canvassed the views of 1,226 parents, step-parents and guardians of children under 18, nationally. This year the survey shows technology use continues to nag at parents, with the real impacts on health and wellbeing increasingly evident. Technology use remains the number one worry for 70% of parents, with 24% ‘extremely concerned’.
Read More
There's a new addiction in New Zealand - more than a third of Kiwis say they are hooked on their screens and many are blaming Covid for it. As the country enters its second week of lockdown, New Zealanders have been averaging five hours of screen time a day on top of using devices for work and school since the Covid pandemic started last year, a new NortonLifeLock study has found.
Read More
The World Health Organisation (WHO) has officially added video game addiction — characterised by "a pattern of persistent or recurrent gaming behaviour" that "takes precedence over other life interests" — to their International Classification of Diseases (ICD) database.
Read MoreWe greatly appreciate your feedback on this website and would like to know what information you found useful and what services you would like to see next. Please take a couple of minutes to let us know.
survey