Access to Potentially Harmful Online Content and Psychological Distress in Australian Older Adolescents: a Population-Based Study

Tuhin Biswas (), Shannon L. Edmed, Nam Tran, M. Mamun Huda, Cassandra Pattinson, Joemer Maravilla, Janeen Baxter and Abdullah Mamun
Additional contact information
Tuhin Biswas: The University of Queensland
Shannon L. Edmed: The University of Queensland
Nam Tran: The University of Queensland
M. Mamun Huda: The University of Queensland
Cassandra Pattinson: The University of Queensland
Joemer Maravilla: The University of Queensland
Janeen Baxter: The University of Queensland
Abdullah Mamun: The University of Queensland

Child Indicators Research, 2025, vol. 18, issue 2, No 16, 867-883

Abstract: Abstract Internet use is an almost ubiquitous part of young people’s daily life. Previous research suggests that harmful internet use is associated with psychological distress in young people. However, there is limited evidence about the unique impact of access to potentially harmful online content with psychological distress among adolescents. We analyzed wave 8 of the Longitudinal Study of Australian Children (LSAC). We estimated the prevalence of self-reported access to different types of potentially harmful online content, including searching for, viewing, posting, sharing or distributing information or images about a) ways to be very thin, b) ways to access illicit substances, and c) pornography. The prevalence of this engagement was also estimated according to gender. We used multinomial logistic regression models to estimate the adjusted association between types of online activities and psychological distress, adjusting for demographic characteristics, social media use, sleep quality, global health, and bullying victimization. Participants were 3,037 adolescents aged 18–19 years (Mean age = 18.4 years, SD ± 0.49 years; 51.1% boys). Overall, 23.3% of adolescents accessed potentially harmful online content on ways to be very thin, 5.74% accessed content on ways to access illicit substances and 41.13% accessed pornography content. We found that the risk of psychological distress was higher for those who accessed content on ways to be very thin (relative risk ratio, RRR: 2.46, 95% CI:1.76–3.44), ways to access illicit substances (RRR: 2.59, 95% CI:1.33–5.05), and for pornography (RRR 2.13, 95% CI:1.55–2.91), after adjusting for other covariates. F or boys, we found that the risk of psychological distress was higher for those who engaged with content on ways to access illicit substances (OR: 4.84, 95% CI:2.07–11.30) and for pornography (RRR 1.52, 95% CI:1.01–2.29). For girls, the risk of psychological distress was higher for those who engaged with online content on ways to be very thin (RRR: 3.89, 95% CI:2.48–6.10) and pornography (RRR 3.37, 95% CI:1.99–5.69). Our findings suggest that accessing certain types of online activities are strongly associated with adolescent psychological distress, and that these associations vary depending on gender. The development of guidelines for parents, careers, and teachers, for the safe use of online activities may support young people’s mental health and wellbeing.

Keywords: Harmful online content; Psychological distress; Older Adolescents; Australia; Mental Health; Internet Safety (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2025
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
http://link.springer.com/10.1007/s12187-025-10217-x Abstract (text/html)
Access to the full text of the articles in this series is restricted.

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:spr:chinre:v:18:y:2025:i:2:d:10.1007_s12187-025-10217-x

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
http://www.springer. ... f-life/journal/12187

DOI: 10.1007/s12187-025-10217-x

Access Statistics for this article

Child Indicators Research is currently edited by Asher Ben-Arieh

More articles in Child Indicators Research from Springer, The International Society of Child Indicators (ISCI)
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Sonal Shukla () and Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing ().