Today, mobile phones are part of daily life, even sometimes smaller ones, reports the online media futurism. But what does it really happen when you place a child in the hands of a child as powerful, connected and complex as a smartphone? A recent research seriously calls into question this habit, by revealing how early exhibition could undermine the psychological health of the youngest.
Published in the Journal of Human Development and Capabilities, the study from Sapien Labs, a start-up specializing in neuroscience, offers a dive into the mental health of young adults from the generation who grew up with these devices. No less than 100,000 young people, aged 18 to 24, were followed as part of the Global Mind Project. The conclusion? Those who have had a smartphone before 13 are much more exposed, once adults, to serious difficulties: suicidal thought, aggressiveness, detachment of reality, even hallucinations. And that’s not all.
Girls who have had a very young access to digital seem to feel more drop in self -confidence, a lack of personal esteem and a deficit in emotional resilience. Boys become less calm, less stable and show less empathy than those who had their first mobile after 13 years.
This age is not trivial. According to Tara Thiagarajan, neuroscientist who cared for the study, the brain of children before 13 years old is simply not ready to collect the impact of social networks and digital in general. Several organizations are also campaigning for the ban on personal smartphones before the end of college.
An increasingly unanimous scientific literature
The study also points to the influence of many invisible dangers such as cyberbullying, social isolation, disturbances of sleep or family tensions. It is a whole digital and relational environment that weighs on the mental development of children.
Researchers call not only families to prudence, but also states to engage in legislation comparable to that around alcohol or tobacco: restriction before 13 years, digital education and requirement of responsibility for large digital companies.
Far from being simple warnings from old grumpy, these results are added to an increasingly unanimous scientific literature: to introduce the smartphone too early into the life of a child, it is not trivial. Faced with the worrying rise in mental disorders among young generations, the question today deserves not only a debate, but perhaps also a real revolution in our family and societal uses.
