SLLS Webinar Series 2026: Session 4
Digital Technology, Mental Health and Young People: To Ban or Not to Ban
About the event
Thursday 30th April 2026
15:00 - 16:00 UK, BST
Online via Zoom
Digital Technology, Mental Health and Young People: To Ban or Not to Ban
Dr. Cara Booker, Senior Research Fellow, Institute for Social and Economic Research, University of Essex
About the session
Digital technology use amongst young people and its impacts on their mental health has long been a concern for parents, educators, policy makers and young people for more than a decade. Much of the early evidence has been based on screen time or extreme use and has resulted in mixed findings or small effects. This talk will outline some of these findings based on our research. We will explore how social media is associated with adolescent mental health in longitudinal studies and whether results of gaming are similar. We will also introduce new research and current direction in the academic sphere. Discussions of the role and potential impact of the Australian under 16s ban and the UK Internet Security Act as well as other proposed bans will help to frame further discussion. Recommendations for future research and considerations will be discussed.
About the speaker
Dr. Booker is a social epidemiologist whose research interest is on the drivers of social inequalities in adolescent mental health, well-being and health related behaviours. She received her MPH with a focus on epidemiology and biostatistics and a PhD in Health Behavior Research from the University of Southern California. Dr Booker started her academic career at the MRC/CSO Social and Public Health Sciences Unit in Glasgow in 2007 where she explored factors associated participant recruitment and retention in population-based longitudinal studies. Since joining the Institute for Social and Economic Research (ISER) in 2009, she has focused on her research interest in health inequalities in young people. She has first authored several papers on digital technology and adolescent mental health and is a co-author on several papers exploring place, specifically living in coastal communities during adolescence and health inequalities in adulthood. Another avenue of research is on health inequalities of sexual minorities. Dr. Booker has extensive experience using and analysing large cross-sectional and longitudinal survey data including Understanding Society, the UK Household Longitudinal Study and its predecessor the British Household Panel Survey, both of which are housed and managed by researchers at ISER. She has worked with the UK Government Equalities Office to analyse their National LGBT Survey, with the Colchester Borough Council to develop a report on the drivers of inequalities in North Essex and with a local city council to evaluate their primary school resilience building programme.
Session convenors
Bram Vanhoutte (Université Libre de Bruxelles) and Hélène Colineaux (Imperial College London) SLLS Interdisciplinary Health Research Group
How to register
Participation in this session is free of charge and open to all, but registration is required.
To register for this session, choose 1 in the 'quantity' dropdown box below (if you are registering a number of people, insert the overall number), then click on the 'Book Now' button and fill in the short form.
The session will be held via Zoom and all registrants will be emailed joining instructions a couple of days before the event. If you do not receive an email, please contact Cat Westlake.
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