Thirteen. At the earliest.
That’s when parents should consider getting their child a smartphone, according to a new study published in JAMA Pediatrics.
Parents are often told to wait until their children hit the teen years to give them their first phone, as research continues to roll in showing health worries tied to young people’s social media habits. The new findings back up conventional wisdom, showing a delay of even one year can lead to measurably better mental and physical health.
"Age 13 seems safer,” said Ran Barzilay, an adolescent psychiatrist at the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia and the senior author of the paper. "Even then, make sure that you put some boundary on the amount of time that the kid is on the screen.”
Getting a phone at 13 wasn’t associated with depression or obesity, according to the analysis of health and data usage for nearly 2,000 kids. It was linked to poor sleep, however. Previous research from the same team showed that 12-year-olds with phones had a higher risk of depression, obesity and insufficient sleep.
Boundaries should include the amount of time kids spend on their phone, and when they use it, Barzilay said. Teens who spent more than five hours a day on their phone had more than double the risk of depression, obesity and insufficient sleep within a year of getting it, he said.
Even the risk of not sleeping enough can be curtailed by having the kids keep their phones outside of the bedroom, he said.
"This is a very straightforward intervention or behavioural modification that can make a big difference,” Barzilay said.
Many parents have taken the "Wait Until 8th” pledge, promising to keep their kids off smartphones until the end of eighth grade. Others have opted for "dumb phone” alternatives like the Tin Can. Policymakers have also begun to take notice. Last year, Australia banned kids under sixteen from holding social media accounts, prompting other countries to consider restrictions of their own. – Bloomberg
