DIGITAL ADDICTION AND CRIMINAL LIABILITY: MENTAL HEALTH DEFENCES IN TECHNOLOGY-INDUCED DISORDERS

The convergence of psychiatric science and criminal jurisprudence has produced enduring
tensions wherever human behaviour is shaped by forces that resist easy moral categorisation.
Digital addiction, now increasingly recognised within clinical nosology as a spectrum of
technology-induced disorders, presents precisely such a challenge. This paper examines whether
compulsive engagement with digital technology — including internet gaming disorder, social
media compulsion, and problematic smartphone use — can sustain a viable mental health

defence to criminal liability. Drawing upon the frameworks of insanity, diminished
responsibility, and automatism as developed across common law jurisdictions and under Indian
penal law, the paper argues that digital addiction occupies a contested but legally cognisable
space. The paper surveys the diagnostic criteria established by the Diagnostic and Statistical
Manual of Mental Disorders, Fifth Edition (DSM-5) and the International Classification of
Diseases, Eleventh Revision (ICD-11), evaluates relevant judicial precedents, and situates the
analysis within broader debates concerning volition, legal causation, and the limits of individual
responsibility in a technologically saturated society. The authors contend that courts require a
doctrinally coherent, evidence-anchored standard for adjudicating mental health defences
grounded in digital addiction, and that existing frameworks, while strained, can be developed
incrementally to meet this need.
Keywords: Digital Addiction, Criminal Liability, Mental Health Defence, Insanity, Diminished
Responsibility, Internet Gaming Disorder, Mens Rea, ICD-11,.