What smartphones are doing to teenage brains, according to science

by · Australian Financial Review

Ariana Eunjung Cha and Sabrina Malhi

University of Pennsylvania researcher Ran Barzilay is a father of three. His first two children received mobile phones before they turned 12. But in the northern summer, as early results from his own study on screens and teen health rolled in, he changed course. His youngest? Not getting one any time soon.

Barzilay’s analysis of more than 10,500 children in 21 US sites found that those who received phones at age 12, compared with age 13, had a more than 60 per cent higher risk of poor sleep and a more than 40 per cent higher risk of obesity.

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