Young people and adolescents facing ICT abuse: COVID-19 and the effects of forced social isolation

The aim of this paper is to research the social network abuse during the COVID-19 confinement in Spain. To collect the data, we have used the online survey. Respondents were Spanish university students studying in different degrees and Spanish public universities. We have used an approach as neutral as possible, rejecting both the cyber-utopian and cyber-phobic perspectives. The results show first that the use of social networks has increased significantly during confinement, especially among those living in larger houses. Second, on the one hand it seems to be that some abuse of social networks has occurred during confinement, on the other hand and according to the results of our survey, it cannot be proven that this has had direct consequences on the academic performance or health of the young people surveyed. The increase in intrafamily conflict is evident.