melbourne the internet can alter specific brain regions and affect our attention capacity memory processes and social interaction a study has foundthe research published in the journal world psychiatry showed that the internet can produce both acute and sustained alterations in specific areas of cognitionthe researchers including those from oxford university in the uk and harvard university in the us investigated leading hypotheses on how the internet may alter cognitive processesit further examined the extent to which these hypotheses were supported by recent findings from psychological psychiatric and neuroimaging researchthe report combined the evidence to produce revised models on how the internet could affect the brains structure function and cognitive developmentthe key findings of this report are that highlevels of internet use could indeed impact on many functions of the brain said joseph firth senior research fellow at western sydney university in australiafor example the limitless stream of prompts and notifications from the internet encourages us towards constantly holding a divided attention which then in turn may decrease our capacity for maintaining concentration on a single task said firth who led the studyadditionally the online world now presents us with a uniquely large and constantlyaccessible resource for facts and information which is never more than a few taps and swipes away he saidgiven we now have most of the worlds factual information literally at our fingertips this appears to have the potential to begin changing the ways in which we store and even value facts and knowledge in society and in the brain he addedthe recent introduction and widespread adoption of these online technologies along with social media is also of concern to some teachers and parentsthe world health organizations 2018 guidelines recommended that young children aged 25 should be exposed to one hour per day or less of screen timehowever the report also found that the vast majority of research examining the effects of the internet on the brain has been conducted in adults and so more research is needed to determine the benefits and drawbacks of internet use in young peoplefirth said although more research is needed avoiding the potential negative effects could be as simple as ensuring that children are not missing out on other crucial developmental activities such as social interaction and exercise by spending too much time on digital devicesto help with this there are also now a multitude of apps and software programs available for restricting internet usage and access on smartphones and computers which parents and carers can use to place some familyfriendly rules around both the time spent on personal devices and also the types of content engaged with he saidalongside this speaking to children often about how their online lives affect them is also important to hopefully identify children at risk of cyberbullying addictive behaviours or even exploitation and so enabling timely intervention to avoid adverse outcomes said firththe findings from this paper highlight how much more we have to learn about the impact of our