Digital technology is ubiquitous in university life. It became indispensable during COVID as a means of delivering teaching and also therapy. University websites and intranets can be valuable repositories of respected health information, signposting and self-help resources, but these need to be kept up to date. There is still a generation gap in terms of being ‘media savvy’ and older people have different experiences online. Society is waking up to the relentless commercial interests driving our online interactions and the psychological conditioning involved. Society needs to protect young brains in particular from exploitation and harm. Long periods spent online mimic psychiatric disorders, by interfering with concentration, causing sleep deprivation, dysregulation, obsessional checking behaviours, body image dysphoria and abnormal interpersonal relations. Unmonitored content and algorithmic amplifications increase distress. Rising rates of deliberate self harm and suicide rates appear to be associated with online experience. Legal and institutional regulation is unlikely to occur without grass roots campaigning. Schools and families usually provides some protection and online safety education. This needs to be reinforced and revisited during the transition to university. Clinicians and others concerned about mental health or wellbeing should explicitly ask questions such as ‘what’s going on for you online?’