The Emerging Requirement for Digital Addiction Labels

[Context & motivation] Digital Addiction, e.g. to social networks sites and games, is becoming a public interest issue which has a variety of socio-economic effects. Recent studies have shown correlation between Digital Addiction and certain negative consequences such as depression, reduced creativity and productivity, lack of sleep and disconnection from reality. Other research showed that Digital Addiction has withdrawal symptoms similar to those found in drug, tobacco, and alcohol addiction. [Question/problem] While industries like tobacco and alcohol are required by certain laws to have a label to raise awareness of the potential consequences of the use, we still do not have the same for addictive software. [Principal ideas/results] In this study, we advocate the need for Digital Addiction labels as an emerging ethical and professional requirement. We investigate the design of such labels from a user’s perspective through an empirical study, following a mixed-methods approach, and report on the results. [Contribution] Our ultimate goal is to introduce the need for labelling to both researchers and developers and provide a checklist of questions to consider when handling this non-functional requirement.