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When digital platforms first became embedded in everyday life, they were largely understood as neutral tools - extensions of communication, information, and convenience.
In those salad days of the consumer internet, the first widespread digital risks were technical: malware, viruses, system corruption. Antivirus software became a standard layer of protection once users understood that participation came with exposure.
Today, a parallel shift is underway - not around software integrity, but around mental and emotional wellbeing. Mainstream awareness has grown around the psychological costs of digital living. Algorithmic amplification, infinite feeds, and engineered emotional response cycles are now widely recognised as shaping attention, mood, self-perception, and behaviour in ways that can be harmful over time.
In response, platforms are beginning to introduce more psychologically aware design systems. Trauma-informed approaches are emerging, content controls are becoming more granular and contextual, and AI is increasingly used to identify and reduce emotionally harmful material at scale.
But this moment is not simply about risk mitigation. What is shifting more fundamentally is expectation. People are no longer asking only whether digital environments are safe, but whether they are healthy. The conversation is moving from protection toward quality of digital experience: how online spaces align with wellbeing, autonomy, and long-term mental health.
This change in perception has reached an institutional level. Policymakers in the EU and UK now recognise youth mental health harms online as a public health concern, reflecting how deeply these issues are understood to be systemic rather than individual.
The future of digital health will not be defined by withdrawal from technology. It will be shaped by how digital systems evolve to operate within human psychological limits.
Expect to see Digital Wellbeing emerge as a significant category in its own right:
Attention protection – tools that manage exposure, pacing, and intensity
Emotional risk detection – systems that recognise when content, interaction patterns, or recommendation loops are likely to cause harm
Cognitive autonomy – design that helps people retain agency over their thinking, mood, and self-image.
It may not be as simple as an ‘antivirus for the mind’, but it could be the protective layer that enable richer, safer digital lives.
