Ought to we wait till age 13 earlier than giving our youngsters a smartphone?

I gave all three of my children their first smartphone once they have been 10 years outdated. The twins are 13 subsequent month, and my youngest is 11 subsequent month (Goodness me – July is pricey for birthdays!). Likelihood is, all three of them are at present sat someplace with their telephone of their hand or close-by. I wouldn’t say they’re addicted, however I undoubtedly fear a good bit about their relationship with expertise. Don’t all twenty first century mother and father!?

Right here in Bristol the place I dwell, it’s totally unremarkable that tweens have smartphones. The overwhelming majority of my kids’s buddies received their first smartphone across the finish of main faculty, often at 10 or 11, within the run-up to the transfer to secondary faculty. From the conversations I’ve had on the faculty gate and on the touchline, that is the UK norm. Anecdotally, the age is at present happening, with a rising variety of yr 5 and 6 children (kids aged Sept. 11) now in possession of their very own telephone. I personally suppose this decreasing of the ‘age of onset’ has occurred within the final 3-4 years, however that’s purely anecdote, not dependable proof.

This UK ‘actuality’ sits considerably awkwardly alongside the loudest worldwide voices on this query. The “Wait Till eighth” motion (a parent-led marketing campaign within the US) urges households to delay till no less than eighth grade (age 13 to 14). Jonathan Haidt’s “The Anxious Era” (Haidt, 2024) turned the concept that smartphones have rewired childhood right into a publishing phenomenon, even when it was based mostly on lower than compelling proof.

Nearer to residence, the Smartphone Free Childhood marketing campaign (Greenwell and Ryrie, based 2024) has grown quickly by UK guardian WhatsApp teams, calling for delaying first smartphones till 14 and social media till 16. UK Authorities coverage has moved in the identical route. The Division for Training’s up to date steering on cell phones in colleges (DfE, 2026) units the expectation that every one colleges in England ought to be cell phone-free environments by default, and from 29 June 2026 Part 36 of the Youngsters’s Wellbeing and Faculties Act 2026 offers this steering the drive of regulation. Australia has legislated a social media ban for under-16s. The UK Chief Medical Officers’ 2019 commentary on display time and social media is overdue for revision, and a name for proof on under-5s display use opened in early 2026. Social media analysis is beginning to discover actually significant questions just like the thrilling ‘IRL Trial‘ led by Amy Orben and Dan Lewer in Bradford.

Into all of this drops two new items of proof from Ran Barzilay’s crew on the Youngsters’s Hospital of Philadelphia, each drawing on the large Adolescent Mind Cognitive Improvement (ABCD) examine cohort. The primary paper (Barzilay et al, 2026) checked out smartphone possession and age of acquisition at age 12. The second paper (Bren et al, 2026), printed at this time in JAMA Pediatrics, follows the youngsters who held out past age 12 to see what occurs as soon as they lastly get a telephone at 13. With a median age of first acquisition of 11 within the ABCD cohort, that is proof that maps very carefully onto the everyday UK parenting trajectory, and I learn each papers with greater than the standard curiosity.

These latest papers by Barzilay and Bren counsel that the youthful a baby is once they get their first smartphone, the upper their danger of despair, weight problems and inadequate sleep.

Strategies

Each papers analyse information from the ABCD Examine, a multisite US cohort following greater than 10,000 kids yearly from age 9 or 10. Caregivers reported smartphone possession (iPhone or Android), age of first acquisition, and (within the newer paper) complete each day smartphone use, use by sort, and whether or not the telephone was positioned outdoors the bed room at night time.

Despair was assessed utilizing the validated Okay-SADS computerised diagnostic interview at age 12 and once more at age 14. At age 13 the primary paper used the self-reported Temporary Drawback Monitor (scientific threshold outlined as a T-score ≥65), which captures broader psychopathology quite than despair particularly. Physique mass index was objectively measured, with weight problems outlined as ≥ninety fifth centile. Sleep was youth-reported (inadequate sleep outlined as <9 hours within the first paper and <8 hours within the second, consistent with American Academy of Sleep Medication suggestions).

Each research used mixed-effects logistic regression with nested random results for household and analysis web site, adjusting for age, intercourse, race and ethnicity, family earnings, parental schooling, pubertal standing, parental monitoring, and possession of different gadgets (pill, laptop computer, iPod, smartwatch). The authors managed for pre-smartphone publicity for smartphone acquisition at age 12 and at age 13. The analyses that examined influence of acquisition at age 12 (paper 1) and age 13 (paper 2) moreover adjusted for pre-smartphone despair, weight problems and sleep one yr earlier than acquisition. Paper 2’s evaluation was pre-registered on OSF earlier than the evaluation was run.

Outcomes

Paper 1 (Barzilay et al, 2026): smartphones at age 12

Of 10,588 kids assessed on the 2-year follow-up (imply age 12), 6,739 (63.6%) already owned a smartphone. The median age of first acquisition was 11 years (vary 4 to 13). The crew ran three analyses: a cross-sectional take a look at possession at age 12, a cross-sectional take a look at age of first acquisition, and a one-year potential take a look at the subgroup who have been smartphone-free at 12 and bought a telephone within the following yr.

Desk 1. Adjusted odds ratios from Barzilay et al, 2026 (Pediatrics)

Daring rows are statistically important. All fashions adjusted for age, intercourse, race and ethnicity, earnings, parental schooling, pubertal standing, parental monitoring, and possession of different gadgets.

• In plain English: proudly owning a smartphone at age 12 was related to worse psychological well being, extra weight problems, and worse sleep.
• Every earlier yr of acquisition was related to a small improve within the odds of weight problems and inadequate sleep, however not despair.
• Amongst children who waited past 12 after which acquired a telephone, each psychopathology and sleep issues rose over the next yr, even after adjusting for his or her pre-phone ranges.

Paper 2 (Bren et al, 2026): smartphones at age 13

The second paper zooms in on 1,959 youth from the identical cohort who have been nonetheless smartphone-free on the age 13 evaluation, then follows them to age 14. Between the 2 waves, 1,230 acquired a smartphone and 729 didn’t. Outcomes have been measured at age 14, with every mannequin adjusting for a similar consequence measured at age 13 (so the comparability is genuinely potential).

Desk 2. Adjusted odds ratios from Bren et al, 2026 (JAMA Pediatrics)

Daring rows are statistically important. All fashions adjusted for pre-exposure measures of the identical consequence, plus age, intercourse, race and ethnicity, earnings, parental schooling, pubertal standing, parental monitoring, and possession of different gadgets.

• The headline discovering right here is the distinction between acquisition and use. Merely getting a smartphone at 13 was not related to despair or weight problems at age 14, although it was related to worse sleep.
• Among the many children who did get a telephone, depth of use was related to all three outcomes, and the hole between heavy and lightweight customers was substantial:
  • children utilizing their telephones for greater than 5 hours a day had greater than double the percentages of despair and weight problems, and double the percentages of inadequate sleep, in contrast with children utilizing their telephones for underneath 2 hours a day.
• Essentially the most clinically helpful discovering, although, is the best one. Children who saved their telephones outdoors the bed room at night time had a roughly one-third discount within the odds of inadequate sleep, from a single behavioural change.

This analysis means that later acquisition of smartphones is constantly safer, however do these potential harms outweigh the advantages?

Conclusions

Taken collectively, these two well-conducted analysis research level in a constant route. The youthful a baby is once they get their first smartphone, the upper their danger of despair, weight problems and inadequate sleep over the next yr.

Barzilay et al (2026) discovered that proudly owning a smartphone at 12 was related to all three outcomes, that every earlier yr of first acquisition was related to increased odds of weight problems and inadequate sleep, and that acquisition of smartphone at age 12 was related to larger psychopathology and worse sleep the next yr, even when adjusting for pre-smartphone psychological well being and sleep. Bren et al (2026) discovered that delaying acquisition till 13 eliminated the affiliation with despair and weight problems at age 14, though the affiliation with inadequate sleep remained. The authors of the newer paper conclude:

Outcomes counsel that merely buying a smartphone at age 13 just isn’t related to despair or with weight problems, however is related to inadequate sleep, at age 14. Nonetheless, the quantity of smartphone use is related to increased odds of all three outcomes. Behavioral interventions like limiting smartphone-time and retaining smartphones out of bedrooms at night time might defend adolescents from potential adversarial well being outcomes.

For folks studying this, the headline is straightforward. The older a baby is once they get a smartphone, the higher their odds. No age is risk-free, however the case for ready is getting stronger.

Strengths and limitations

There’s a lot to love in each papers. The ABCD Examine is likely one of the finest adolescent cohorts on the earth, with a big, multisite, demographically numerous US pattern, objectively measured BMI, and validated Okay-SADS interviews for despair. Each papers embrace genuinely potential analyses that regulate for pre-exposure despair, weight problems and sleep, so the comparability teams share a typical start line.

That is the strongest design both crew may run with observational information, and it’s the foundation for essentially the most causally interpretable findings in every paper. Paper 2 went additional by pre-registering its hypotheses and evaluation plan on OSF earlier than the info have been inspected. Each papers included E-value sensitivity analyses to check how robust an unmeasured confounder would must be to clarify away the findings, used mixed-effects fashions that account for household and web site clustering, and shared their analytical code brazenly on GitHub. The crew are additionally commendably trustworthy about what they may not do.

There are a number of limitations value flagging:

• Smartphone possession, age of first acquisition, and each day time of use have been all measured by single self-report or guardian report questions. We all know from prior ABCD work utilizing passive sensing that self-reported smartphone time is solely modestly correlated with objectively logged use. The whole “depth” story subsequently rests on a measurement instrument with identified accuracy issues.
• The pre-registered social media speculation (that social media use particularly would drive the adversarial outcomes) couldn’t be formally examined, as a result of information on use-type have been lacking for too many members (35.5% of members had no information on social media use, 58.5% had no information on video chatting, and 32.3% had no information on video gaming). That is the query most mother and father, clinicians and policymakers care about, and the paper can’t reply it.
• The possible analyses in each papers, that are the strongest items of proof both crew experiences, have been essentially restricted to children who have been nonetheless smartphone-free on the prior evaluation (age 12 in Paper 1, age 13 in Paper 2). These subgroups skewed in the direction of increased socioeconomic standing, as a result of the kids who managed to delay first acquisition got here disproportionately from higher-income, more-educated households. The authors argue this probably underestimates the true inhabitants impact dimension, citing European proof that adversarial results could also be bigger in lower-SES youth, however that’s believable quite than demonstrated.
• Each papers come from a single cohort with no replication. The despair discovering for acquisition at 13 (OR 1.45, 95% CI 0.98 to 2.14) is correct on the boundary and will transfer in both route with extra energy. There’s additionally some assemble slippage within the first paper, the place the age-13 consequence is broad psychopathology quite than despair particularly.
• Lastly, the disclosures. Dr Barzilay holds inventory in Taliaz Well being and serves on the Scientific Advisory Board of Youngsters and Screens (an advocacy organisation with a transparent place on this subject). Dr Visoki’s partner has pursuits in Kidas. The authors state these are usually not related to the work. Readers can resolve for themselves.

The social media query that the general public most desires answered, these research couldn’t formally take a look at.

Implications for observe

For almost all of UK mother and father, the query just isn’t whether or not to present a baby a smartphone earlier than 13. By the point most children are beginning secondary faculty on this nation, the choice has successfully already been made for us by peer norms, faculty communication channels, the varsity run, and the superbly cheap want for our youngsters to have the ability to contact us. The dialog has to start out from that actuality.

Completely different readers will need various things from this proof, so the suggestions beneath are break up by viewers. They’re drawn from throughout each papers.

For younger folks

The proof in these papers is about you, however it’s hardly ever directed at you. Here’s what it really says:

• Get your telephone out of your bed room at night time. Children on this examine who did, had roughly one-third decrease odds of being quick on sleep. That is the only most helpful factor you are able to do.
• Watch the heaviest finish of use. Self-reported use of greater than 5 hours a day was linked to roughly double the percentages of despair, weight problems and inadequate sleep, in contrast with lower than 2 hours a day.
• You could be the one who decides to place it down, earlier than another person decides for you.
• In case your mother and father (or your faculty) put limits in your telephone, this isn’t a punishment. The proof in these papers is actual science about actual our bodies and actual minds, together with yours. Closing dates and the bed room rule are about defending the way you sleep, how you’re feeling and the way you develop, not about controlling you.

For folks and caregivers

In case your youngster already has a smartphone (which is almost all of UK households by the beginning of secondary faculty), the levers that matter most are time and bed room entry. In case your youngster doesn’t but have one, you continue to have the choice to attend.

• Take telephones out of bedrooms at night time. A basket on the kitchen counter, or a charging level within the hallway, works. That is the strongest behavioural discovering in both paper. Maintaining telephones in bedrooms in a single day is linked with inadequate sleep.
• Mannequin the behaviour your self. Your children discover your telephone habits greater than they discover your guidelines.
• Set an agreed each day time restrict and be constant. Use built-in iOS or Android controls if it helps. The danger gradient will get steep above 2 hours a day and steeper nonetheless above 5.
• Should you can nonetheless wait, wait. The proof helps delaying first-smartphone acquisition. There’s nothing magic in regards to the quantity 13, however later is mostly safer than earlier.
• Use the AAP PhoneReady Questionnaire to construction a readiness dialog, specializing in judgement, impulsiveness and accountability quite than peer strain.
• Have an actual dialog together with your youngster in regards to the findings. These two papers present smartphone use immediately affecting sleep, weight and temper, so selections about when to accumulate a telephone and the way a lot to make use of it are selections about well being. Children are much more more likely to settle for a rule once they perceive the science behind it.

For clinicians

Smartphones now want their very own scientific dialog, separate from the older “display time” assemble.

• Add smartphone use to routine adolescent wellbeing assessments. “Do you sleep together with your telephone in your bed room?” and “What number of hours a day are you on it?” are helpful beginning questions in GP, paediatric and college nurse consultations. Additionally ask what they do on their telephones.
• Flag the >5 hours a day threshold as a concrete warning signal for psychological well being, weight and sleep danger.
• The place sleep is the presenting concern, the bedroom-phone rule has essentially the most direct proof behind it. It’s value a particular suggestion, not a normal one.
• Don’t conflate smartphone use with social media use. This proof can’t converse to the social media query; deal with them as separate scientific conversations.

For policymakers

The timing of this proof is hanging. The brand new statutory mobile-phone-free colleges regime underneath the Youngsters’s Wellbeing and Faculties Act 2026 comes into drive on 29 June 2026, simply three weeks after Bren et al was printed. The federal government’s ongoing work on limiting under-16s’ social media entry continues.

• Sit behavioural steering alongside age-based laws, not after it. Each day closing dates and bedroom-free guidelines are the levers mother and father can really use, no matter acquisition age.
• Replace the 2019 UK CMOs’ display time commentary. It pre-dates nearly all the smartphone-specific proof, and these papers are causes to revisit it.
• Spend money on goal measurement. Self-report has taken this discipline so far as it might go. The subsequent wave of analysis wants passive sensing and larger, extra socioeconomically numerous samples.
• Deal with the social media query as open. The pre-registered speculation in Bren et al couldn’t be examined. Future laws ought to be grounded in proof that doesn’t but exist.

Have a dialog together with your children about this new analysis. What influence does it have in your selections about expertise?

Private reflection

As for me, I’m not going to fake that the smartphone-at-10 determination goes to be unwound, and pretending in any other case wouldn’t be trustworthy to the place most UK households really are. My children have skilled many advantages from utilizing smartphones to this point, together with speaking with family and friends, studying languages, creating artwork and music, and customarily having enjoyable.

Are these constructive experiences well worth the danger and potential hurt by way of influence on their well being? That’s a query that every of us as mother and father has to reply for our personal kids, and certainly for ourselves. I’m actually going to be speaking with my children about this new analysis and deciding as a household what influence it has on us.

They could all be messaging Ran Barzilay in Philadelphia and inspiring him to do much less analysis on smartphones and youngsters in future!

All of the household telephones charging downstairs at bedtime is likely to be the only most evidence-based intervention I can implement tonight.

Assertion of pursuits

I’m a guardian of three kids, aged 10, 12 and 12, all of whom obtained their first smartphone at age 10, across the typical UK transition from main to secondary faculty. This lived expertise as a guardian of smartphone-owning kids will inevitably form how I learn this proof, and I’ve flagged it so readers can take that under consideration.

I’ve no skilled or monetary relationships with any industrial celebration with a stake in adolescent smartphone use. I do know one of many authors of those analysis papers, however I had no involvement within the analysis.

I’m a Trustee on the Centre for Psychological Well being and an Honorary Analysis Fellow on the College of Bristol. I’m additionally the Co-Founder and Co-Director of The Psychological Elf and it’s sister firm Minervation Ltd. I’ve lived expertise of despair and nervousness which is properly documented elsewhere on this web site.

I used AI (Claude) to edit and enhance this weblog, however the concepts in it and the appraisal of each analysis papers was completed by me.

Hyperlinks

Main papers

Bren Z, Tran KT, Visoki E, Waasdorp TE, Moore TM, Pimentel SD, Barzilay R. (2026) Smartphone Acquisition and Use at Age 13 and Their Associations with Well being Outcomes at Age 14. JAMA Pediatrics. Revealed on-line June 8, 2026. doi: 10.1001/jamapediatrics.2026.2118

Barzilay R, Pimentel SD, Tran KT, Visoki E, Pagliaccio D, Auerbach RP. (2026) Smartphone Possession, Age of Smartphone Acquisition, and Well being Outcomes in Early Adolescence. Pediatrics 157(1):e2025072941. https://doi.org/10.1542/peds.2025-072941

Different references

Division for Training (2026) Cellphones in colleges (up to date 19 January 2026). London: DfE.

Youngsters’s Wellbeing and Faculties Act 2026, Part 36. UK Parliament.

Smartphone Free Childhood. UK parent-led marketing campaign (Greenwell D, Ryrie J). https://smartphonefreechildhood.co.uk

UK Chief Medical Officers (2019) Commentary on screen-based actions and youngsters and younger folks’s psychological well being and psychosocial wellbeing. Division of Well being and Social Care.

Haidt J. (2024) The Anxious Era: How the Nice Rewiring of Childhood Is Inflicting an Epidemic of Psychological Sickness. Penguin.

Paruthi S, Brooks LJ, D’Ambrosio C, et al. (2016) Consensus Assertion of the American Academy of Sleep Medication on the Really useful Quantity of Sleep for Wholesome Youngsters. Journal of Scientific Sleep Medication 12(11):1549-1561. 10.5664/jcsm.6288

Wait Till eighth. https://www.waituntil8th.org/

American Academy of Pediatrics PhoneReady Questionnaire.