- Early smartphone ownership linked to increased obesity, depression and sleep issues in kids.
- For each year younger at which kids received smartphones, health risks increased significantly.
- Professionals recommend cautious consideration of smartphones' health implications before giving to children.
A new study suggests that giving kids their own smartphone before age 12 is linked to a higher risk of obesity, depression and too little sleep by early adolescence.
Researchers analyzed data from 10,588 children in the Adolescent Brain Cognitive Development Study and compared 12-year-olds who owned a smartphone with those who did not, according to findings published this week in the journal Pediatrics.
At age 12, kids with smartphones were about 40% more likely to be obese than their peers who didn’t yet have a phone, after accounting for factors such as family income, puberty, other devices in the home and parental monitoring, the study reported.
The same group also had roughly 60% higher odds of getting insufficient sleep, which can itself contribute to weight gain and metabolic problems in growing children, researchers wrote.
Earlier access appeared to matter, too. For each year earlier a child received a smartphone, their odds of obesity and too little sleep ticked higher, suggesting a cumulative effect of longer exposure to the device and the habits that come with it, according to the study.
The work was led by Dr. Ran Barzilay, a child psychiatrist at Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia, with collaborators at the University of California, Berkeley, and Columbia University. A news release said that early smartphone ownership in adolescence was consistently linked with increased risks of depression, obesity and insufficient sleep, even after controlling for other screens like tablets and smartwatches.
Barzilay told CBS News that the team did not even look at what kids were doing on their devices — social media, gaming, texting or even schoolwork — but simply whether they owned a smartphone at that age and how that related to their health a year later.
“We basically asked one simple question: does the mere factor of having one’s own smartphone at this age range have anything to do with health outcomes?” he said.
Among children who did not have a smartphone at 12, those who got one between 12 and 13 were more likely at 13 to report clinically significant mental health problems and too little sleep than peers who still didn’t own a phone, the study found.
The research adds to growing concern about how early and how often kids should be on phones. Roughly 60% of U.S. children now own a smartphone by age 12, according to Pew Research, meaning many are entering the high-risk age window with a device already in hand.
Experts emphasized that the findings show association, not proof of cause and effect. Kids who own phones may also differ in ways the study couldn’t fully capture, such as family rules, school environment or preexisting health issues.
Still, the patterns line up with earlier work linking heavy screen use with less exercise, more snacking and disrupted sleep — all factors that can drive weight gain in children.
Barzilay said parents should treat the decision to give a child a smartphone as a health decision, not just a social milestone.
“When you give your kid a phone, you need to think of it as something that is significant for the kid’s health — and behave accordingly,” he told The New York Times.
For families already navigating phone use, research from Michelle Ponti suggests four principles to help: “minimizing, mitigating, mindfully using and modelling healthy use of screens.”
While the new Pediatrics study cannot say exactly which patterns — late-night scrolling, constant notifications or something else — are driving the higher obesity and sleep risks, the authors say it should prompt parents and policymakers to think more carefully about when, and how, kids get their first smartphone.