“They just sat there looking at their phones,” exclaimed our 9-year-old, disappointed after spending the day with a couple of slightly older children this Christmas. Has anyone experienced something similar?
As a family, we wish to delay the introduction of smartphones for our kids for as long as possible. We know several families with older children than ours who have wanted the same but have had to give in to social pressure. Not surprisingly, when half of Norwegian 9- and 10-year-olds already have their own smartphone and use social media.
The debate around children and youth and their access to smartphones and social media usually focuses on bullying, privacy, internet safety, etc. The effect on mental health, addiction, loneliness, class divisions, and sleep problems receives less attention, but now the evidence of the harmful effects of mobile phones in these areas is becoming so extensive that it’s time to take them seriously.
One of the researchers who has spent years studying these effects is Jean Twenge. She was recently interviewed by The New York Times and reported that middle school students who spend a lot of time on social media have a dramatically increased likelihood of becoming unhappy and depressed. Since 2007, the share of children who have gained access to smartphones and social media has exploded, and the suicide rate for 10-14-year-olds has tripled.
Professor Alexey Makarin from MIT, who is behind a study that links the rollout of Facebook to a significant increase in depression, puts it this way: “It is still uncertain whether social media is the main cause of increasing mental health problems, but it is highly likely that it is a strong factor.”
Research leaves little doubt that extensive use of smartphones and social media leads to users sleeping less and having lower sleep quality. It is also well documented that children who do not get enough quality sleep have a significantly higher risk of concentration problems, depression, and suicidal thoughts.
According to the Norwegian Media Authority, Norwegian parents give smartphones to their children for two main reasons. Firstly, it is practical; children and parents can easily contact each other and plan their daily lives. Secondly, parents fear social exclusion if their child is the only one in their circle of friends without their own smartphone. Some families have phones lying around after parents or siblings have upgraded, so often there is no acquisition cost.
Many would argue that the decision of when a child can have a smartphone is a private matter, and that parents themselves must assess the risk they are exposing their own children to. Resourceful families can moreover regulate usage through good supervision and technical solutions. However, the decision to give children smartphones not only has consequences for one’s own children, it also contributes to creating pressure on others. As parents, we unfortunately cannot decide that our children will not experience social pressure. But what we can do is delay the introduction of smartphones to our own children and thereby help to reduce the pressure on other people’s children. Then we can hope that other parents will do the same for us.
International experts recommend age limits from 13 to 16 years for social media, and Jean Twenge believes this should also apply to smartphones. Some might call it government overreach, but that’s what many thought about the Norwegian smoking act as well, introduced to protect the surroundings as much as the smokers. Now, the first generation that has grown up with smartphones is becoming old enough to speak up for themselves: “My childhood was stolen by social media: Please introduce an age limit!”
Our children are growing up now and don’t have time to wait for regulations, even though they will hopefully come as a result of the efforts of the Norwegian “Screen Use” Committee. We should start by taking a critical look at ourselves as parents - are we giving our children smartphones because it is the best solution for them, or is it the path of least resistance for us in a hectic everyday life?
The parents’ need to keep in touch with their children can be met with an old school feature phone and the children can use it to coordinate social activities with their friends. When it comes to entertainment, Norwegian children should be pushed more towards books than screens; Norwegian 10-year-olds have weak reading skills and the lowest reading pleasure of all 65 countries in the PIRLS survey.
Key figures in the companies that have developed smartphones and social media are among the most restrictive on their children’s screen time because they know it creates addiction. It’s thought-provoking that Steve Jobs’ children were not allowed to use iPads.
I don’t want my children to walk into a future with their noses in a screen, poor reading skills, poor concentration abilities, and a high risk of mental health problems. It doesn’t take many like-minded people to reverse the trend, and if we work together, our children can live without smartphones until they are mature enough to handle them.