Bootstrap-Project

The project, which is funded by Horizon Europe with 7.5 million euros, is a large-scale, standardized analysis of the effects of Internet use on young people with a broad and diverse range of participants and researchers. Young people from nine European countries will be included in the study.

The overall project involves 22 institutions from 14 countries; the young people are being recruited in 9 countries.

The researchers will use a specially developed cell phone app to record how thousands of teenage volunteers from a wide range of European locations, cultures, socio-economic backgrounds and educational systems use the internet on a daily basis. The researchers will use innovative methods to determine how this use can lead to harm or poor health and test proposals for individualized interventions.

The results will also be developed and made available for policy recommendations to combat problematic use of the internet (PUI) at international level. Leading international researchers are involved in the study, including experts working with the World Health Organization (WHO).

The bootstrap project consists of six work packages. One of these projects is led by Susanne Walitza, UZH Professor of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, and Meichun Mohler-Kuo, UZH Titular Professor
Its objectives include:

1. Coordination of ethical approvals across study sites.
2. Recruiting three groups of young people to conduct the project studies.
3. Ensuring optimal participant retention.

Schools, teachers, pupils and parents are actively involved in the project. The aim is to find out to what extent behavioral changes can help to remove people from the risk group for problematic internet use and thus prevent future illnesses associated with PUI.

In the first phase of the project, teachers and students will be given the opportunity to participate in the development of the study as "school ambassadors" and to exchange ideas with representatives from other schools. This is intended to ensure the relevance of the study and give interested teachers and pupils an insight into and involvement in a European research project.

Participating schools will be certified as participants on the project website and will have access to information and prevention materials; they will also receive further and advanced training on request.

The Department of Education of the Canton of Zurich supports the project, please read the letter of recommendation from the Department of Education.

After the official start of the project (July 2023), contact and coordination with the schools began in September 2023 and the first data will then be collected from September 2024.