PANIC is spreading 鈥� in the press and the playground 鈥� about the impact of social media and smartphones on children.
There are many questions around what modern technologies are doing to young minds. Some claim that when we first gave children smartphones, it was the largest uncontrolled experiment humanity ever performed on its own children. That young brains are being rewired, and that social media is responsible for an alarming rise in childhood anxiety.
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There has indeed been an increase in anxiety in young people, as we report in our special issue, starting with 鈥淭he new evidence that explains what anxiety really is鈥�. Given this rise seems to correlate with the arrival of smartphones and social media in the 2000s, it feels intuitive that they are to blame.
A backlash is now under way, as many parents seemingly long for the pre-smartphone days. In England, to encourage schools to go phone-free and a to be banned for under-16s. Meanwhile, there is a giving young people a smartphone until eighth grade (aged 13 to 14) in the US.
And yet there is surprisingly little solid evidence that this technology is the cause of the rise in anxiety. Other research points to factors such as social inequality and fears about climate change. The way therapy culture has started infiltrating our lives may also play a role.
None of this means that social media and smartphones are off the hook, but we must follow the evidence 鈥� and for now, unfortunately, it is inconclusive. This is no time for moral panic, and banning phones in an attempt to return to the simpler childhoods of the past isn鈥檛 the answer.
But there are things that can be done, most notably proper regulation of social media companies, which claim that their platforms aren鈥檛 for children and yet are widely used by them. It is also easier for governments to focus on phones rather than attempting to address the problems we know are causing anxiety in the young: climate change and poverty.
