What the literature shows — and where it stops.
SafeTime organizes published work into six themes. Every entry records its key finding alongside its limitations, so readers can judge the strength of the evidence themselves.
Six areas of existing research
Always-On Connectivity
Smartphones have made internet access immediate, continuous, mobile, private, and highly personalized. Understanding this baseline matters before proposing any intervention.
Problematic Internet Behaviors
Existing research examines problematic internet use, problematic pornography use, social media overuse, gaming, gambling, sleep disruption, and compulsive digital behavior. Prevalence estimates and definitions vary substantially between studies.
The Intention-Behavior Gap
Behavioral research explores how people form long-term intentions yet make different decisions when exposed to immediate rewards or high-risk contexts.
Pre-Commitment
People may voluntarily restrict future options so that later behavior stays consistent with earlier intentions. Examples outside SafeTime include savings commitments, gambling limits, study schedules, productivity tools, and device limits.
Digital Wellbeing
Research examining screen time, digital self-control, digital wellbeing tools, and intentional technology use.
AI and Human Agency
An emerging question: can AI support users in achieving goals they themselves choose, instead of primarily optimizing engagement?
SafeTime distinguishes between established research findings and hypotheses currently under investigation. References presented on this website should not be interpreted as proof that SafeTime itself is effective. The SafeTime intervention requires independent evaluation.
Curated sources
Sources are added manually and only from peer-reviewed journals, systematic reviews, meta-analyses, and recognised research bodies. We do not publish citations we have not verified.