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All interested members of the public are warmly invited to attend.
The following text has been machine translated from the German with no human editing.
Social media, computer games and other digital content can pose a real danger to children and young people: Eva Möhler will outline the risks associated with excessive media consumption, but also the opportunities offered by digitalisation, in her lecture on 27 November, hosted by the Paul Fritsche Foundation Scientific Forum.
One of the risks is that child and adolescent psychiatric disorders have almost doubled with the increase in media consumption. In addition, numerous studies show that screen time has a negative impact on concentration, emotional regulation, sleep, social skills and the cognitive and physical development of children and young people. According to Eva Möhler, daily media consumption of four to six hours is now normal for children under the age of 13, and up to nine hours for older children. Long screen times reduce the amount of time children spend in natural environments (‘green time’), depriving them of real-world experiences that are essential for healthy development.
The lecture will also address more far-reaching risks – such as the harassment of children and young people in unprotected chat rooms – as well as the reasons for the high risk of addiction among young people. In order to curb children's consumption of digital media, Eva Möhler advocates regulated screen time that is consistently enforced. She also calls for decisive action on the part of legislators.
On the other hand, the professor of child and adolescent psychiatry sees opportunities: digital presence enables young people to participate and provides new access to children and young people. If we accept that children and young people spend a lot of time in the digital space – with all the rules and structures that entails – there is an opportunity in the ‘gamification of psychotherapy’. This refers to playful programmes that can help children and young people to better cope with their mental health problems.
The Department of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry at the University Hospital has submitted several project proposals in response to a call for proposals from the Federal Ministry of Research, Technology and Space (BMFTR). The presentation will provide an initial preview of the therapy game ‘Confidence’, a gamified self-esteem training programme against bullying that was developed in cooperation with the DFKI and is soon to be tested. In addition, the therapy game AngstVrei will be presented, which was developed in cooperation with Fraunhofer IBMT to help children with school anxiety or school-avoiding behaviour. As a final example, Eva Möhler will present ‘Skills4Kids,’ a gamified stress resilience training programme to promote emotional regulation and impulse control, which is funded by the ‘Health.ai’ network.
Following her presentation, Eva Möhler will be available for discussion.
Prof. Dr. med. Eva Möhler
She has been employed at Saarland University Hospital and the University Medical Centre since 1 April 2020 and also heads the Child and Adolescent Psychiatry Department at the SHG Clinics. She obtained her postdoctoral qualification at Heidelberg University, where she also heads the Child and Adolescent Psychiatry Department at the SHG Clinics. 2020, working at Saarland University and the Universitätsklinikum, she also heads the child psychiatry department at the SHG clinics. She completed her habilitation at Heidelberg University, where she also trained as a specialist at the hospital and worked from 1993 to 2018. During this time, she also took nine years of parental leave to care for her three sons. The addictive pressure that digital media can exert is therefore very much present in her own parenting.
Time: Thursday, 27 November 2025, at 6:15 p.m.
Location: University Hospital Campus, Homburg, Lecture Hall Building (Building 35), Lecture Hall 1
Questions answered by:
Prof. Dr. med. Michael D. Menger
Vorsitzender Paul-Fritsche-Stiftung
Medizinische Fakultät der Universität des Saarlandes
66421 Homburg/Saar
E-Mail: michael.menger@uks.eu