Samson Nivins

Reinforcement Loops and Developing Brains: Why Australia Said ‘Enough’ Australia’s nationwide ban on social media use for children under 16, which comes into effect tomorrow, marks the first major government action to align with emerging scientific evidence on digital exposure and neurodevelopmental risk. In our longitudinal cohort study (2016–2022), we found that children who spent more than one hour per day on platforms such as TikTok, Facebook, or Instagram showed increasing inattentiveness (i.e., reduced focus and concentration) across the four-year follow-up. Mainly, this pattern did not reflect reverse causation, inattentiveness did not predict increased social media use. This strengthens the interpretation that social media exposure contributes causally to attentional difficulties. In today’s reality, where many children spend more than five hours per day on social media, the implications are even more concerning.   These findings are particularly timely as governments inclu...

  Extremely preterm birth is one of the greatest challenges in neonatal health today. Every year, thousands of families face the uncertainty of seeing their tiny newborns survive against the odds, knowing that survival is just the first step in a long journey.   A recent population-based study from Sweden led by Aden et al 2025 paints a striking picture, over the past two decades, survival rates for extremely preterm infants have improved a triumph of modern perinatal care. But despite this progress, neurodevelopmental outcomes , such as cognitive and motor function, have not improved in the same way (https://doi.org/10.1136/archdischild-2024-327919). This gap, often described as a ‘ BLACK BOX ’, leaves clinicians and researchers puzzled. Why does survival improve, but development remains stubbornly plateaued? The answer is complex. Biological vulnerability e.g., the immaturity of organs, underdeveloped neural networks, plays a central role, but it is not the whole story. En...