Science further confirms what many parents suspect. Owning a smartphone before adolescence heightens the risk of poorer mental health in early adulthood, a global study of more than 100,000 young adults shows.
Young people aged 18 to 24, who got their first smartphone at 12 or younger, were “more likely to report suicidal thoughts, aggression, detachment from reality, poorer emotional regulation and low self-worth”, found the peer-reviewed study published on Monday.
“These symptoms ... can have significant societal consequences as their rates grow in younger generations,” said neuroscientist and lead author Dr Tara Thiagarajan from US-based Sapien Labs.
The Smartphone Free Childhood movement in South Africa has noticed similar trends, said SFC-SA CEO Kate Farina. Thousands of parents in 318 schools across all provinces have joined the movement since it launched a year ago.
“Giving smartphones to children under 13 [is associated with] significantly higher rates of anxiety, depression and even suicidal thoughts. The earlier a child gets a smartphone, the greater the mental health risk — especially for girls,” said Farina, highlighting a recent statement on excessive screen time by the South African Society of Psychiatrists.
The movement supports the call for no smartphones to be given to under 13s and no social media under 16, and the latest study highlights reasons to take this stance.
The effects of early smartphone ownership were largely “associated with early social media access and higher risks of cyberbullying, disrupted sleep and poor family relationships by adulthood”, the results showed.
Besides the long-term threat to mind health, the short-term risks to children’s safety on social media are huge, as media lawyer Emma Sadleir has demonstrated in legal cases and explained in books.
She won a major victory on Friday getting Meta Platforms to permanently shut down accounts posting child porn on WhatsApp and Instagram.
The four key recommendations of the study, published in the Journal of Human Development and Capabilities, include holding tech giants accountable:
- to strengthen the active identification of social media age violations and ensure meaningful consequences for technology companies;
- restricting access to social media platforms;
- implementing graduated access restrictions for smartphones; and
- a requirement of mandatory education on digital literacy and mental health.
In South Africa, 62% of children have access to a smartphone or tablet by age 10, 83% have social media accounts by age 12 and 67% reported stranger contact or cyberbullying online, according to a survey by Be In Touch, an online safety organisation founded by Farina.
A Unicef Disrupting Harm Survey in 2020 found that 94% of children aged 9-17 accessing the internet on a smartphone or mobile phone. Nearly a third of the children surveyed had met someone face-to-face after first meeting the stranger online. While some found this exciting, others felt anxious, fearful or threatened.
The US researchers are urging policymakers to adopt a precautionary approach for under-13s and smartphone use, similar to that on alcohol. Sapiens Labs chief scientist Thiagarajan said: “For example, in the US, underage alcohol access and consumption is regulated through a combination of parental, commercial and corporate accountability.”
Our evidence suggests childhood smartphone ownership, an early gateway into AI-powered digital environments, is profoundly diminishing mind health and wellbeing in adulthood
— Dr Tara Thiagarajan, Sapien Labs chief scientist
Sapien Labs hosts the Global Mind Project, the world’s biggest database on mental wellbeing, which spans 71 countries and is source of this study’s data. The researchers used the Mind Health Quotient (MHQ) — a self-assessment tool that measures social, emotional, cognitive and physical wellbeing — to analyse Global Mind Project data and generate an overall “mind health” score.
The younger children get smartphones, the lower the average mind health score. For example, one young person who got a phone at five, had a MHQ score of just one compared with an average score of 30 among people who first owned phones at 13. The Covid-19 pandemic may have magnified the trends, the scientists noted.
Younger smartphone ownership among females was associated with lower self-image, self-worth and confidence and emotional resilience. Among males it correlated with lower stability, calmness, self-worth and empathy.
While the strong results do not prove a causal link between early smartphone ownership and later wellbeing, they are a wake-up call to adults responsible for children’s safety online.
Thiagarajan said: “Our evidence suggests childhood smartphone ownership, an early gateway into AI-powered digital environments, is profoundly diminishing mind health and wellbeing in adulthood with deep consequences for individual agency and societal flourishing.”
“That said, I think it is also important to point out that smartphones and social media are not the only assault to mental health and crisis facing younger adults.”
Farina said the SFC-SA advocates for a low-tech, slow-paced and intentional approach to digital access for children. “Before children step into the online world, they deserve time for real play, real connection and real-life experiences,” she said.
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