New research suggests the dire consequences of giving smartphones to minors before they even reach adolescence.
By analyzing an existing survey of thousands of children and adolescents in the United States, researchers found that children who owned a smartphone by age 12 were more likely to develop eating disorders than children who did not own one, they reported in a new study published in the journal. Open JAMA Network.
Beyond the devices themselves, the findings are the latest to illustrate the dangers of being exposed to social media at such a formative stage in a child’s life.
“A smartphone can put a world of appearance-focused content in a young person’s pocket,” exposing them to images and messages that may promote unhealthy eating behaviors, said lead author Jason Nagata, an adolescent medicine specialist at the University of California, San Francisco. CNN. “It is important for parents to be aware that acquiring a smartphone is not just about the device. It can change a child’s access to different content and exposure in the digital world.”
To study the impact of smartphone ownership among young people, researchers analyzed a widely cited cognitive development survey of thousands of schoolchildren. 70 percent of participants, or more than 6,200 teenagers, said they already owned a smartphone at age 12.
Among phone owners aged 12, the most commonly reported eating disorder symptom was binge eating (9%). And by age 14, about 24 percent of this cohort reported having at least one eating disorder symptom. It is telling that these figures are lower among children who did not receive telephones during their preadolescence, of whom, by the age of fourteen, only 16 percent reported symptoms of eating disorders.
The culprit is almost certainly exposure to social media. One clue is that children surveyed who owned a smartphone at age 12 were twice as likely to link their self-esteem to weight. They were also 50 percent more likely to try to compensate for their weight gain with exercise or disordered behaviors like self-induced vomiting.
“When you compare yourself to influencers whose images are curated, edited and filtered,” Nagata said. CNN“This can lead to more body dissatisfaction and poor self-esteem, and this can then be a risk factor for eating disorders.”
These findings may not surprise parents familiar with the risks of smartphones and social media. Indeed, the survey underlying the researchers’ work has already found that every additional hour adolescents spent in front of a screen was linked to a higher risk of erectile dysfunction symptoms and linked their perceived self-esteem to weight. Where this study carves out a niche is in highlighting how the age at which they started using the devices comes into play.
If these findings are to be believed, even a slight delay in children’s access to smartphones could make a significant difference to their mental health. Mitch Prinstein, a professor of psychology and neuroscience at the University of North Carolina who was not involved in the study, said CNN that new research suggests an effective delay could be as little as six months to a year.
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