diff --git a/system/Helpers/html_helper.php b/system/Helpers/html_helper.php
index a15b18ff47e8..c2e48d890fef 100755
--- a/system/Helpers/html_helper.php
+++ b/system/Helpers/html_helper.php
@@ -189,8 +189,8 @@ function doctype(string $type = 'html5'): string
      *
      * Generates link to a JS file
      *
-     * @param mixed $src       Script source or an array
-     * @param bool  $indexPage Should indexPage be added to the JS path
+     * @param array|string $src       Script source or an array of attributes
+     * @param bool         $indexPage Should indexPage be added to the JS path
      */
     function script_tag($src = '', bool $indexPage = false): string
     {
diff --git a/tests/system/Helpers/HTMLHelperTest.php b/tests/system/Helpers/HTMLHelperTest.php
index 74b087228fdd..d539d7421be6 100755
--- a/tests/system/Helpers/HTMLHelperTest.php
+++ b/tests/system/Helpers/HTMLHelperTest.php
@@ -269,6 +269,16 @@ public function testScriptTagWithSrcAndAttributes()
         $this->assertSame($expected, script_tag($target));
     }
 
+    /**
+     * This test has probably no real-world value but may help detecting
+     * a change in the default behaviour.
+     */
+    public function testScriptTagWithoutAnyArg()
+    {
+        $expected = '<script src="http://example.com/" type="text/javascript"></script>';
+        $this->assertSame($expected, script_tag());
+    }
+
     public function testLinkTag()
     {
         $target   = 'css/mystyles.css';
diff --git a/user_guide_src/source/changelogs/v4.2.0.rst b/user_guide_src/source/changelogs/v4.2.0.rst
index 0ed69ab0760a..fa88608dc355 100644
--- a/user_guide_src/source/changelogs/v4.2.0.rst
+++ b/user_guide_src/source/changelogs/v4.2.0.rst
@@ -38,6 +38,7 @@ Enhancements
     - The log format has also changed. If users are depending on the log format in their apps, the new log format is "<1-based count> <cleaned filepath>(<line>): <class><function><args>"
 - Added support for webp files to **app/Config/Mimes.php**.
 - Added 4th parameter ``$includeDir`` to ``get_filenames()``. See :php:func:`get_filenames`.
+- HTML helper ``script_tag()`` now uses ``null`` values to write boolean attributes in minimized form: ``<script src="..." defer />``. See the sample code for :php:func:`script_tag`.
 
 Changes
 *******
diff --git a/user_guide_src/source/helpers/html_helper.rst b/user_guide_src/source/helpers/html_helper.rst
index 44d0089ac6c7..220e94ebee64 100755
--- a/user_guide_src/source/helpers/html_helper.rst
+++ b/user_guide_src/source/helpers/html_helper.rst
@@ -104,8 +104,8 @@ The following functions are available:
 
 .. php:function:: script_tag([$src = ''[, $indexPage = false]])
 
-    :param  mixed  $src: The source name of a JavaScript file
-    :param  bool    $indexPage: Whether to treat ``$src`` as a routed URI string
+    :param  array|string  $src: The source name or URL of a JavaScript file, or an associative array specifying the attributes
+    :param  bool          $indexPage: Whether to treat ``$src`` as a routed URI string
     :returns:   HTML script tag
     :rtype: string