The Hidden Dangers of Smartphones for Kids Under 12

Smartphones before age 12 and health risks According to the Times, a significant new study published in Pediatrics is giving parents one more reason to delay the first smartphone, as if they needed another reason. But let's dive in. Researchers followed more than 10,500 children in the Adolescent Brain Cognitive Development Study and and found that kids who had a smartphone by age 12 were more likely to show symptoms of depression, obesity and poor sleep than peers who didn't yet have a device. The younger children were when they got their phones, the greater the risk. Lead author Dr. Ran Barzilay says parents must see smartphones as a health decision, not a convenience. And experts stress this is correlation, not proof of causation. But the evidence is strong enough that many say families shouldn't wait for perfecting or for perfect data before acting. One near universal takeaway Phones in bedrooms disrupt sleep, and removing them at night is one of the simplest ways to reduce harm. What's the real message here? If you're a parent and you give a cell phone smartphone to your kid before the age of 12, you are essentially decreasing their odds of growing up to be a healthy, successful human being. You're increasing their odds of poor sleep, of obesity, of cognitive problems. Why would you do that? Take the phone away, Give it to your kids when they're older. They may hate you now. They'll appreciate it later. Let's dig a little bit deeper here and let's again, here are the facts. This was a study on 10,500 people, 500 kids. It is true. They concede that they cannot, with 100% certainty establish causality. It's a correlation. And you can't do everything based on correlation. If I jump up and down and dance today and say I'm doing a rain dance and it rains five minutes later, it's correlated. It doesn't mean my rain dance caused the rain. So I want to be fair about this. But at some point, again, this is a study of 10,500 children. I would also toss the question back to parents. What is the causation? What proof do you have that giving your child a phone is going to help them in any way? You could say, well, you know, my child did their homework better, faster. Well, maybe that was just correlation. At some point I do think that a sane, sensible person says, okay, I can't prove 100% causation. But the correlation seems so overwhelming in so many different ways and I can't find any other causes that I'm just going to have to go with this. It's the best I can do for now. Of course, it's possible that randomly there are space aliens coming down and shooting lasers into children, causing them to have bad sleep and causing them to have increased odds of obesity has nothing to do with the cell phones. I don't think that's very likely, do you? Let's look at some more of the facts. The median age for a first smartphone was 11, I am ashamed to say. That is I believe when my daughter got her cell phone, not because I wanted it, but I was out vetoed that. Nearly 100% of U.S. teens now have smartphone access, according to to this study in the publication Pediatrics. Late childhood is a sensitive development period, according to the experts. And this is not happening. 17% said phone alerts woke them up in the past week. So your children. We all need sleep. We live in a sleep deprived world. Cell phones are making it worse. There's simply no doubting that. I have a strict rule. I do not let my cell phone in my bedroom. Well, if it's during the middle of the day and I happen to be there, fine. But if I'm going to bed, I place my cell phone in another room for an absolute emergency from a family. A couple of people, and I mean a couple of people have my home phone line. So if you really need to reach me. But texting, a random call, spam call, those don't ever wake me up. But guess what? They are waking up your child because their best friend just had to text them at 3am about what they're wearing to school tomorrow. That is destroying their ability to get maximum recovery for their brain. It's harming their cognitive abilities. Now, according to this survey, the sleep disruption affects mood, learning and weight regulation. Here in the United States and in many other industrialized nations, we're seeing an absolute epidemic of obesity in people who are overweight. Diabetes, stroke, heart attacks, all things that follow from being obese. Well, if you can't get a good night's sleep because you're waking up to check your phone or one of your friends texted you with something so urgent they couldn't wait till homeroom the next day, you're setting a lifelong pattern of not getting enough sleep, not giving your brain time to rest and rejuvenate. So the researchers say policies must also update your youth tech guidelines. Smartphone effects are not equal. Young brains are much more impressionable, they're more malleable, and there's a much greater capacity for damage. So, you know, we regulate cigarettes and let's face it, for a long time, there was no conclusive evidence that cigarettes cause cancer. Some of the tobacco industry still don't admit it, but there sure was a lot of correlation. An awful lot of people said, you know what? All my aunts and uncles smoked cigarettes. They all got lung cancer and they all died at 40. Maybe this is back in the 40s and 50s. Maybe, just maybe, this smoking isn't good for you. Then later on, clear causation was established. I think we're going to see exactly the same thing with cell phones. And whether it's 20 years or 30 years from now, parents who gave their kids smartphones today and last year and the year before are going to be looked upon as exactly the same as parents who encourage their children to smoke cigarettes in the early 60s. It's going to seem as bizarre and beyond pale.