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Online risks: from cancer to autism?

2009-02-25 03:08:19

By Clare Murphy

BBC News health reporter

A number of reports have recently linked online networking and computer games

to a host of health risks.

Susan Greenfield, the eminent neuroscientist and head of the Royal Institution,

is the latest to weigh into the debate, warning that young people's brains may

be fundamentally altered by internet activity.

While concerns about children and computers have usually focused on their

forging inappropriate relationships online, or failing to get enough exercise

as a result of being glued to a screen, the baroness suggested the consequences

may be more profound.

She told peers in the House of Lords it would be worth considering whether the

rise in autism - a condition marked by difficulties forming attachments - was

linked to the increasing prevalence of screen relationships.

Real-life conversations "require a sensitivity to voice tone, body language and

perhaps even to pheromones - those sneaky molecules that we release and which

others smell subconsciously.

It is hard to see how living this way on a daily basis will not result in

brains, or rather minds, different from those of previous generations

Baroness Greenfield

"Moreover, according to the context and, indeed, the person with whom we are

conversing, our own delivery will need to adapt. None of these skills are

required when chatting on a social networking site," she said.

"It is hard to see how living this way on a daily basis will not result in

brains, or rather minds, different from those of previous generations."

She also suggested that increasing diagnoses of Attention Deficit Hyperactivity

Disorder - ADHD - may be connected to the "near total submersion of our culture

in screen technologies".

Last week, a report published in the journal Biologist, suggested that a lack

of face-to-face contact could alter the way genes work, upset immune responses,

hormone levels and the function of arteries.

This, said author Aric Sigman, could increase the risk of health problems as

serious as cancer, strokes, heart disease and dementia.

Indisputably, people are spending more time online and social networking sites

are increasingly popular - the BBC even has a "my CBeebies" where youngsters

can create their own avatar.

Alone and ill

A number of studies have looked at the negative effects of social isolation on

health: from an increased risk of cardiovascular disease to outright death,

being lonely does not appear to be good for you.

They need to communicate and the internet is giving them a channel that they

would not otherwise have

Professor David Skuse

But whether computers - and social networking in particular - improve or

exacerbate social isolation in the first place is a moot point.

A spokeswoman for Cancer Research UK noted that there was no evidence to link

the disease with using Facebook.

If anything, it has been suggested, social networking may improve the quality

of life of those with cancer by allowing those affected to make contact.

Baroness Greenfield meanwhile points out that those on the autism spectrum are

particularly comfortable in the cyber world.

"She's right about that, but her analysis is the wrong way round," said

Professor David Skuse, of the Behavioural Sciences Unit at the Institute of

Child Health.

"The young people with autism we see do have a problem with face-to-face

communication although they can be very articulate. They need to communicate

and the internet is giving them a channel that they would not otherwise have.

He added: "As for ADHD, it's true that I have yet to meet a child who could not

concentrate on a computer. It seems to give them a way to focus in a way that

lessons at school do not. Most of those with ADHD find their condition very

distressing and want a way to control it - they want a way to focus."

In and out

Nonetheless Baroness Greenfield's overriding concerns about an ever more

self-absorbed generation unable to empathise with others do chime with popular

fears, says Helene Guldberg, a psychologist and author of Reclaiming Childhood:

Freedom and Play in an Age of Fear.

In an ideal world children would be freer to pursue their friendships and

activities outdoors, on the street, away from the watchful and worried eyes of

their parents

Helene Guldberg

Pyschologist

"Technology is something of an easy target when perhaps we should be asking

more difficult questions about our relationships with our children.

"But it is true that in an ideal world children would be freer to pursue their

friendships and activities outdoors, on the street, away from the watchful and

worried eyes of their parents.

"That doesn't make social networking sites wrong or damaging," she said. "But

they shouldn't be the only option for children to communicate with each other -

and let's not exaggerate the scale of the problem - we're not yet there."