COMBATING SMARTPHONE ADDICTION THROUGH OTP-BASED NETWORK AUTHENTICATION AND A SOCIAL ACCOUNTABILITY FRAMEWORK

Yash Goel, Pushkar Aggarwal, Ashutosh Kumar, Deepika Kukreja, Amarjit Malhotra

Abstract: Smartphones have become an integral part of daily life, but excessive use has led to addiction, resulting in reduced productivity. Existing digital wellbeing solutions rely heavily on the user’s self-control and fail to provide consistent results. This paper presents a digital wellbeing solution that addresses these limitations through two features: a focus mode unlocked only through a One-Time Password sent to a trusted contact, and a social accountability framework. Selected applications remain blocked until authentication is verified. A community dashboard displays focus streaks and peer progress to foster motivation. A 30-day study with 27 participants observed 24.7% reduction in average daily screen time along with a focus streak of 12 out of 15 days in the Intervention Phase. These findings provide objective evidence that combining external authentication with social accountability offers a more robust intervention against smartphone addiction than traditional self-regulated approaches.

Keywords: Smartphone addiction, Digital wellbeing, One-time password authentication, Focus mode, Social accountability

DOI: 10.24874/PES08.02B.015

Recieved: 13.03.2026  Revised: 27.04.2026  Accepted: 19.05.2026  
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