MITA

The European School Project on Alcohol and Other Drugs (ESPAD) is a study which shows that a great majority of Maltese adolescents are engaging regularly on social media and many of them for a very long period during the day.

Information collected from over 3,000 Form 5 students across Malta and Gozo shows that 87% of these students have used the internet during four of the previous seven days. Moreover, 44% of them have used social media for four hours or more during the day.

This study is conducted every four years among 15-16 year old students. This is the sixth report that has been published and this year it includes internet use and gambling as potential leads to addiction. The survey was carried out as an anonymous questionnaire in 35 European countries, including Malta. In Malta, the study was carried out by Aġenzija Sedqa within the Foundation for Social Welfare Services (FSWS).

In the analysis of the data about the use of the internet, the report shows that students were most likely to engage in social media activities, with 85% of the respondents using social media on four or more days. These were followed by streaming or downloading, information seeking and surfing, online gaming, consumption activities and online gambling respectively. On a positive note, only 1% of the respondents said that they use the internet for online gambling.

The results also show that girls have used the internet for more days and hours on social media, streaming/downloading and information seeking. Buys spent more time than girls on gaming and on gambling activities.