Children's Brains Are Being 'Hacked' by Algorithms: The State Must Act Now!

Why must the state pull the digital emergency brake for children on 28 March 2026? We often think that the issue of children and social media is merely about the duration of screen time. However, science shows something far more serious: changes in children’s behaviour and brains.

Smartphones Do Not Make Children Smarter, But Rather Weaken Brain Function

Neuroscience research from Macquarie University, Australia, indicates that the use of smartphones and digital devices:

• reduces cognitive abilities

• weakens memory

• disrupts concentration

• increases tendencies towards depression and anxiety

• and makes individuals more easily distracted and less capable of deep thinking. A more worrying condition is that Prof. Mark Williams emphasises that information learned through digital devices is not stored well and is not easily transferred to real life. This means children may appear to “know a lot”, but they do not truly understand, which is then called the illusion of intelligence.

The main problem is not the content, but the mechanism of how digital platforms work. Smartphones and social media form a pattern called attention fragmentation, where children continuously:

• switch from one stimulus to another

• respond to notifications, sounds, moving visuals

• lose the ability to maintain focus on one task

Neuroscience confirms that the human brain cannot multitask; what happens is switching, which incurs a “cognitive cost” in the form of:

• reduced ability to read long texts

• decreased patience in thinking

• deep analysis replaced by quick reactions

This is the situation that occurs, to the point where the digital generation is often referred to as a generation that is fast but shallow.

Digital as a “Gateway Drug”, the Entrance to Deeper Addictions

One of the most critical findings from the Macquarie research is that digital addiction is not just a standalone issue, but a gateway to other addictions. Neurologically, all addictions work on the same dopamine system, where the more frequently stimulated, the higher the need for the next stimulus. Then a tolerance process occurs, where the need becomes greater, faster, and more extreme.

Williams emphasises that smartphone addiction works exactly like addiction to drugs or gambling. Furthermore, individuals already addicted to one thing will become more vulnerable to other addictions. This finding explains why:

• game addiction can escalate to extreme content

• consumption of light content can develop into risky content

• social media actually opens the door to impulsive and destructive behaviour

The effects of digital do not stop at cognition or intellect, but research shows:

• the longer children are on screens, the lower their empathy

• the ability to read facial expressions decreases

• real social interactions also weaken

We are facing a generation that:

• is highly connected digitally

• but increasingly disconnected emotionally. Thus, global phenomena emerge such as:

• increasing loneliness (loneliness epidemic)

• rising teenage depression

• increasing suicidal tendencies

Why Children Are More Vulnerable Than Generations 20-30 Years Ago

Cross-generational comparative studies show fundamental differences, where generations before today’s digital technology were characterised by:

• brains developing in a stable environment

• stimulation coming naturally (playing, social interactions)

• focus trained gradually

whereas, the social media generation’s condition is:

• brains developing in a hyper-stimulus environment

• exposure to instant dopamine from an early age

• never trained to “wait”, resulting in:

• very low tolerance for boredom

• weakened mental resilience

• continuously eroding complex thinking ability

This phenomenon is not about “today’s children being different”, but about the developmental brain environment that has indeed changed drastically.

The State Has No Choice But to Intervene

In this context, government policy through PP TUNAS is not only relevant, but scientific and urgent. The policy of delaying access is not a ban, but the presence of the state because algorithms are too powerful to be fought by each individual, let alone just by our children and adolescents alone.