Children who use smartphones up to the age of 12 are at risk of health problems
Having a smartphone may be harmful to children under 12, according to a new study.
The study, published in the peer-reviewed journal Pediatrics, found that owning a smartphone during early adolescence is associated with increased risks of mental health problems and obesity.
Regarding psychological impacts, he identified higher incidences of depression and insufficient sleep in children who had smartphones by the age of 12 or younger, compared to other children without these devices.
Researchers at the Children's Hospital of Philadelphia, the University of California at Berkeley, and Columbia University reached these conclusions after analyzing data from more than 10 adolescents in the US who participated in the Adolescent Brain Cognitive Development (ABCD) Study between 2018 and 2020. The study, funded by the National Institutes of Health, describes itself as the "largest long-term study of brain development and child health" in the country.
According to the researchers, 63.6% of the study participants owned a smartphone, and the average age they got one was 11 years old, KosovaPress reports.
The researchers determined that younger children had greater risks than older participants for poor sleep or obesity associated with smartphone ownership, with increasingly worse health outcomes reported for children the younger they were when they received their first smartphone.
The study also compared children who had received a smartphone by the age of 12 and children who had not, and found that a year later, those without smartphones were experiencing better mental health than those who had them.
"We took into account the fact that the children may have had other technological devices like tablets or iPads, and that did not change the results," said Ran Barzilay, the study's lead author and a child psychiatrist at the Center for Youth Suicide Prevention, Intervention and Research at the Children's Hospital of Philadelphia, in an interview with CBS News' "The Daily Report."
Barzilay said his study's findings suggest that parents should view smartphones as "an important factor in adolescent health" and approach the decision to give their children a phone with care and consideration.
