The study found that children with phones before the age of 12 develop mental problems, poor sleep, depression, and obesity.
By Catholics for Catholics
Handing a smartphone to children before the age of 12 could provoke in them depression, obesity, poor sleep and mental health problems, according to a recent study by the American Academy of Pediatrics.
According to the Daily Wire, the study discovered that children who were given smartphones before the age of 12 were at a greater peril of getting future problems, including poor sleep, depression, obesity, and more.
The earlier children were given the smartphones, the more likely they were to acquire unfavorable outcomes, according to what the researchers noted.
Dr. Ran Barzilay, the lead study author, told ABC News that his reasons for doing the study were both professional and personal. “I have a nine-year-old who wants a phone, and I think [whether to get them a smartphone] is a question that is relevant for every parent of a kid going into adolescence, even before adolescence.”
“We didn’t even look at what the kids did on the phone,” the child psychiatrist said, per CBS News. “We basically asked one simple question: does the mere factor of having one’s own smartphone at this age range have anything to do with health outcomes?”
According to The Wire, the research included facts collected from 10,500 participants in the Adolescent Brain Cognitive Development Study (ABCD) between 2018 and 2020. It was observed that 63.6% of the ABCD study participants owned a smartphone, and the median age at which they received the phone was 11 years old.
The investigators concentrated on children aged 9 to 16, seeking to identify health outcomes linked with when they were given a smartphone. The crew found that 12-year-olds who had a cell phone had a 1.3 times higher risk of depression, a 1.4 times higher risk of obesity, and a 1.6 times higher risk of insufficient sleep as compared to their peers who did not have phones.
But things got worse. The perils of developing these issues augmented by 10% for each year earlier the children were given phones, with some kids being given smartphones as young as 4.
The study’s deduction stated, “Smartphone ownership was associated with depression, obesity, and insufficient sleep in early adolescence. Findings provide critical and timely insights that should inform caregivers regarding adolescent smartphone use and, ideally, the development of public policy that protects youth.”
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