Kara Alaimo is a professor of communication at Fairleigh Dickinson University and teaches parents, students and teachers how to manage screen time. Her book “Over the Influence: Why Social Media Is Toxic for Women and Girls — And How We Can Take It Back” was published in 2024.
Like many parents, Nicole Cannon faces a dilemma: If she gets her 13-year-old son the smartphone he wants, she worries that it will monopolize his attention at the expense of other things, including his responsibilities, outdoor time, and even the need to eat.
Her son already has an iPad, and Cannon notices he often wants to use it instead of going outside and playing sports.
A sleep consultant who lives in Cranbury, New Jersey, Cannon is also concerned her son would lose out on sleep. “What if he’s getting that dopamine high from the things he’s doing on his phone all the time, and then his body can’t regulate the hormones for sleep overnight?” she said.
On the other hand, she thinks her son would be safer in some ways with a smartphone. Now that he’s old enough to go out on his own with friends, Cannon would like a way to stay in touch. He has a smartwatch, but it doesn’t always work.
“My concern is that sometimes I have no idea where he is,” she said. “That’s the conflict,” she explained, saying she wants a phone so she can track him and be in touch when picking him up from activities, “but I do not want him addicted to it.”
Regardless of the decision she makes, new research suggests she’s right to be worried. Early adolescents who get phones at younger ages are more likely to have obesity, be depressed and not get enough sleep, according to a study of more than 10,000 12-year-olds published Monday in the journal Pediatrics.
“Many experts have urged parents to delay when children receive their first smartphone because of possible harms to adolescent health, but until now there has been little empirical evidence to support that advice,” said Dr. Ran Barzilay, lead author of the study and a child and adolescent psychiatrist at Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia, in an email. “This study helps fill that gap using a large, national sample.”
Barzilay, who is also an assistant professor of psychiatry at the University of Pennsylvania, said the study didn’t look at how kids used their phones or how much time they spent on them — factors that could also affect their health. He also said it doesn’t say whether there are similar patterns among younger and older smartphone users.
Consider delaying smartphones
This study is just one more reason I think parents should consider holding off on getting their kids smartphones. As I’ve said before, there are other ways of staying in touch with children, including flip phones and watches. There are also other methods for kids to stay in touch with one another, including old-fashioned landlines.
To ensure smartphones don’t replace exercise once kids get them, I advise parents to sign their children up for organized sports or other physical activities. Although it’s easy to plan for outings such as family walks, often it’s hard to stick to a schedule when it rains or a friend invites your kid over. But if you’ve paid for an extracurricular activity and a coach and teammates are counting on your child to show up, you’re more likely to stay on track and ensure your kid gets enough physical activity.
Another benefit is that these kinds of activities tend to reduce the amount of time kids spend on smartphones. It’s pretty tough to check your phone when you’re playing in a soccer game or doing backflips on a balance beam. If kids aren’t interested in team sports, there are plenty of other things to consider — including martial arts, running clubs or yoga and other exercise classes at your local community center.
Ban phones in bedrooms
Remember to keep smartphones out of the bedroom at night to prevent them from interfering with sleep, Barzilay recommended. Research suggests the reason smartphones interfere with kids’ sleep is simple: They use them under the covers.
Not getting enough sleep puts kids at risk of accidents, trouble learning and poorer health — including obesity and depression, according to the American Academy of Pediatrics.
A good way to reduce battles over bedroom use is to designate a central place in the house where everyone — including, yes, parents — charges their phones overnight.
Check on your kid’s mental health
One reason smartphones are associated with depression is probably because of comparison culture: On social media, people post the filtered, glamorized versions of their lives. It’s easy for anyone — especially impressionable, insecure kids — to fall into the trap of feeling like they don’t measure up after consuming this kind of content. That’s why it’s important to talk to our kids about why they shouldn’t compare themselves with what they’re seeing online.
“Let your teen know that having a smartphone can affect their health and that you want to help them build healthy phone habits,” Barzilay suggested. “Every few weeks, talk together about how phone use is going.”
Educate your kids about what they’re consuming online. Searching for content together can teach them how to explore healthy topics — such as their interests and issues they care about. It’s also a smart way of letting algorithms know your kids are interested in certain topics, making it more likely they’ll be shown similar content in the future. Teach them to avoid content that’s inappropriate or bad for their mental health by scrolling past it quickly, to signal to algorithms that they’re not interested.
A lot of kids get caught up in “friend drama” online — including things such as cyberbullying — which can harm their mental health. Let them know that you’re there to help them navigate sticky situations without judging or punishing them.
Also make sure smartphones don’t replace face-to-face time with friends, which kids need to be healthy and happy. Although parents often assume children would rather be on screens, kids say the reason they often don’t see friends in person is because their parents don’t let them.
Yet it’s much better for kids’ mental health to foster friendships with their peers than to scroll on content from toxic body image and masculinity influencers. (You can even ask for everyone’s phones during their time hanging out and foster outside play or board games or other activities.)
This latest research confirms what many already suspected: getting smartphones younger may be bad for kids’ physical and mental health. That’s why it’s a good idea to consider alternatives, especially for younger children. Once kids get smartphones, parents can also be smart about protecting their mental health and ensuring they get enough exercise and sleep.
