{"id":435511,"date":"2026-01-25T00:51:08","date_gmt":"2026-01-25T00:51:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/435511\/"},"modified":"2026-01-25T00:51:08","modified_gmt":"2026-01-25T00:51:08","slug":"digital-addiction-linked-to-social-risks-fbc-news","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/435511\/","title":{"rendered":"Digital addiction linked to social risks \u2013 FBC News"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>\t\t\t\t<img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/Teens-Social-media.png\"\/><\/p>\n<p>Young Fijians are spending more time on smartphones and gadgets, raising concerns about their wellbeing.<\/p>\n<p>This, according to Minister for Youth and Sports Jese Saukuru. He warned that too much screen time keeps children offline and limits social and physical activity.<\/p>\n<p>Saukuru said urgent action was needed to guide youth back to meaningful activities.<\/p>\n<p>Article continues after advertisement<\/p>\n<p>He stressed that parents must keep children busy with productive pursuits.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe have witnessed the rise of smartphones and their profound effects on our Gen Z youth. It\u2019s crucial to adopt a holistic approach to guide them back on track.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Saukuru linked screen time to broader societal problems, including unemployment, drug use and the spread of HIV.<\/p>\n<p>He urged leaders and families to work together to protect youth from crime especially with increased online activity since COVID-19.<\/p>\n<p>Government programs such as youth sports initiatives, aim to encourage offline engagement and help young people balance technology with healthy, real-world activities.<\/p>\n<p><a id=\"viti-plus-link-article\" href=\"https:\/\/www.viti.plus\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Stream the best of Fiji on VITI+.  Anytime.  Anywhere.<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Young Fijians are spending more time on smartphones and gadgets, raising concerns about their wellbeing. This, according to&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":435512,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[35],"tags":[64,63,137,514,515],"class_list":{"0":"post-435511","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-mental-health","8":"tag-au","9":"tag-australia","10":"tag-health","11":"tag-mental-health","12":"tag-mentalhealth"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/435511","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=435511"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/435511\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/435512"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=435511"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=435511"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=435511"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}