Owning a smartphone before age of 13 linked to poorer mental health

OWNING a smartphone before the age of 13 is associated with poorer mental health and well-being in early adulthood, according to a global study of more than 100,000 young people.

The study, published in the peer-reviewed Journal of Human Development and Capabilities, said young adults who got their first smartphone at age 12 or younger reported increased rates of suicidal thoughts, violence, disconnection from reality, lower emotional control, and low self-worth.

A team of experts from Sapien Labs, which hosts the world’s largest database on mental wellbeing, the Global Mind Project, where the data for this research was pooled from, are calling for urgent action to protect the mind health of future generations.

The study found that early social media access accounts for approximately 40 per cent of the link between early smartphone ownership and later mental health issues.

Other contributing factors include poor family relationships (13 per cent), cyberbullying (10 per cent), and disrupted sleep (12 per cent).

Specific symptoms strongly linked to earlier smartphone ownership include suicidal thoughts, aggression, detachment from reality, and hallucinations.

While the study shows strong correlations, the authors acknowledge that it does not yet prove direct causation between early smartphone ownership and later mental health. However, they argue that the potential harm is too significant to delay preventative action.

The researchers acknowledge the COVID-19 pandemic may have magnified these patterns, but the consistency of these trends across all global regions suggests a broader developmental impact of early smartphone access.

Dr Tara Thiagarajan, lead author, a neuroscientist and chief scientist of Sapien Labs, in a remark said, “Early smartphone ownership  and the social media access it often brings is linked with a profound shift in mind health and wellbeing in early adulthood.”

According to them, while smartphones offer opportunities for connection and learning, their early introduction, particularly with social media access, poses substantial risks to the mental well-being of young people, necessitating urgent policy interventions and digital literacy education.

They, therefore, called for immediate action to safeguard the mental health of coming generations, which included limiting children under the age of 13’s access to smartphones, requiring digital literacy instruction, and holding tech corporations accountable.

Smartphones have changed how young people connect, learn, and create identities since the early 2000s. However, these opportunities are accompanied by growing concerns about how AI-driven social media algorithms may promote social comparison and magnify harmful content while also affecting other activities like sleep and in-person interactions.

The minimum user age of 13 is specified by many social networking sites; however, enforcement varies. Every day, many children spend hours using their smartphones, and the average age at which they first own one is steadily declining.

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