RESPONSIBILITY OF GOVERNMENTS IN THE FACE OF A GLOBAL MENTAL HEALTH EMERGENCY

 

When the COVID-19 pandemic emerged, governments across the world reacted with unprecedented speed and coordination. Borders were closed, populations confined, schools shut down, and entire economies suspended. Whether all those measures were proportionate or not remains open to debate, but one fact is undeniable: governments acted immediately when the threat was recognized as critical.

Today, we are facing another global emergency — one that is less visible but potentially more destructive in the long term: the deterioration of the mental health of children and adolescents, exacerbated by unregulated digital exposure, addictive online systems, and predatory platforms.

This crisis affects the youngest generations — who represent not only the majority of the world’s population, but also its future. And yet, the collective response is close to nonexistent.

Schools are not to blame. Educational institutions generally comply with the regulations imposed upon them. The problem lies elsewhere: there is an alarming absence of clear, enforceable policies designed to protect minors from documented digital harms. As a result, schools are left without guidance, without tools, and without legal protection to act decisively — even when risks are well known.

This situation raises a fundamental question of responsibility.

Governments cannot simultaneously claim to protect children while allowing environments that expose them daily to addictive mechanisms, psychological manipulation, and harmful content — often embedded invisibly within legitimate digital services. Numerous studies, alerts from health professionals, and reports from international organizations have already documented these dangers.

Inaction, when the risks are known and the solutions exist, is not neutrality. It is a choice.

Public policy naturally involves trade-offs and constraints. But history will judge governments not only on the crises they confronted, but also on those they chose to ignore. Protecting the mental integrity of younger generations should not be an ideological issue, a political distraction, or a secondary concern.

It should be a priority.

The protection of children has always been one of the clearest markers of a society’s maturity. Failing to act decisively in the face of a systemic threat to their mental health is a failure that will have long-term social, economic, and human consequences.

Children deserve more than statements of concern: They deserve responsibility, courage, and action.

#ChildProtection #MentalHealth #DigitalResponsibility #PublicPolicy #YouthSafety #CyberHealth #DigitalSociety