December 4, 2025 | 08:57 pm
TEMPO.CO, Jakarta - Giving a child a smartphone at a young age carries considerable risk. Multiple recent studies indicate that owning a phone or smartphone too early can contribute to increased mental health disorders, poor sleep patterns, and a heightened risk of obesity during adolescence.
A study published in the journal Pediatrics on Monday, December 1, 2025, found that children who received a phone before the age of 12 were more likely to experience depression, obesity, and poor sleep habits compared to their peers who did not own a phone.
Researchers reached this conclusion after evaluating data from over 10,500 children who participated in the Adolescent Brain Cognitive Development study, which is the latest and largest long-term research project focused on children's brain development.
Ran Barzilay, the lead author and a child and adolescent psychiatrist at the Children's Hospital of Philadelphia, noted that introducing a phone significantly affects a child's health. "A kid at age 12 is very, very different than a kid at age 16," she stated, as quoted by the New York Times on the same day.
Lack of Socialization, Exercise, and Sleep
While this specific study does not directly prove causation, its findings, like those of previous research, suggest that early phone ownership leads to children engaging in less socialization, physical exercise, and sleep.
A prior study published in 2023, for instance, found that children aged 11 and 12 who kept electronic devices in their bedrooms were almost 17 percent more likely to be awakened by notifications. Simultaneously, more than 80 percent of children aged 11–17 do not meet the recommended daily amount of physical activity, a deficit attributed in part to increased focus on screens. A lack of movement is known to contribute to both health and social behavioral issues in children.
Call for Regulatory Intervention
Separately, a study published in the Journal of Human Development and Capabilities suggested that giving a phone to children under the age of 13 is a major mistake. This increasingly common habit, the study argued, silently threatens the mental health of children, with impacts that may be felt well into adulthood.
Quoting Psychiatrist.com, Common Sense Media, a non-profit organization in America, reported that 42 percent of U.S. children own smartphones by age 10, and this figure jumps to more than 70 percent by age 12. Consequently, the authors of the Pediatrics study argue that it is time for regulatory intervention.
Since the early 2000s, smartphones and AI-based digital platforms have fundamentally changed how children communicate, play, and form their identities. However, unlike regulated products such as alcohol or tobacco, the use of smartphones and social media has largely escaped regulatory attention.
Researchers suggest this oversight has resulted in a digitally engineered environment that can exploit the psychological vulnerabilities of children while disrupting essential developmental tasks, including sleep, social bonding, and emotional regulation.
HESTI DWI ARINI
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