A global study of more than 100,000 young people has found that receiving a smartphone before age 13 is linked to poorer mind health in early adulthood, including aggression, detachment from reality, and even suicidal thoughts. Credit: Shutterstock
Experts identify four urgent priorities after findings reveal that smartphone users under 13 are more likely to report various problems, including suicidal thoughts.
A worldwide study involving more than 100,000 participants has found that receiving a smartphone before the age of 13 is linked with weaker mental health and lower overall wellbeing in early adulthood.
The research, published in the peer-reviewed Journal of Human Development and Capabilities, reported that individuals aged 18 to 24 who first owned a smartphone at 12 or younger were more likely to experience suicidal thoughts, heightened aggression, feelings of detachment from reality, difficulties with emotional control, and diminished self-worth.
The findings further indicate that these negative outcomes are closely tied to early exposure to social media and increased vulnerability to cyberbullying, poor sleep quality, and strained family relationships later in life.
Experts call for urgent action
Researchers from Sapien Labs, the organization behind the world’s largest mental wellbeing database, the Global Mind Project (which provided the data for this study), are urging immediate measures to safeguard the mental health of future generations.
“Our data indicate that early smartphone ownership—and the social media access it often brings—is linked with a profound shift in mind health and wellbeing in early adulthood,” says lead author neuroscientist Dr. Tara Thiagarajan, who is the founder and Chief Scientist of Sapien Labs.
“These correlations are mediated through several factors, including social media access, cyberbullying, disrupted sleep, and poor family relationships leading to symptoms in adulthood that are not the traditional mental health symptoms of depression and anxiety, and can be missed by studies using standard screeners. These symptoms of increased aggression, detachment from reality, and suicidal thoughts can have significant societal consequences as their rates grow in younger generations.
“Based on these findings, and with the age of first smartphones now well under age 13 across the world, we urge policymakers to adopt a precautionary approach, similar to regulations on alcohol and tobacco, by restricting smartphone access for under 13s, mandating digital literacy education, and enforcing corporate accountability.”
Since the early 2000s, smartphones have transformed the ways young people communicate, learn, and build their sense of identity. At the same time, concerns have intensified about AI-driven social media algorithms that can spread harmful content, promote unhealthy social comparisons, and interfere with important activities like in-person interaction and adequate sleep.
Concerns over social media and youth development
Although most social media platforms officially require users to be at least 13 years old, this rule is often poorly enforced. At the same time, the age at which children first receive a smartphone continues to decline, with many now spending several hours a day on their devices.
Approaches to restricting phone use in schools vary widely across countries. In recent years, France, the Netherlands, Italy, and New Zealand have introduced bans or limitations on cell phones in educational settings. While evidence of their effectiveness is limited, a Dutch government study has reported improvements in student focus. In the United States, New York has recently announced it will become the largest state to prohibit smartphones in schools, joining Alabama, Arkansas, Nebraska, North Dakota, Oklahoma, and West Virginia, which already require schools to adopt at least some restrictions.
Research to date on screen time, social media use, and smartphone access has generally identified negative mental health impacts, yet findings have been inconsistent and sometimes contradictory. This may be due in part to the reliance on screening methods that overlook key associated symptoms.
In the present study, the Sapien team used data from their Global Mind Project and applied the Mind Health Quotient (MHQ), a self-assessment tool designed to measure social, emotional, cognitive, and physical wellbeing, to calculate an overall “mind health” score.
Symptoms and mental health outcomes
Their results showed:
- The symptoms most strongly associated with early smartphone ownership include suicidal thoughts, increased aggression, feelings of detachment from reality, and even hallucinations.
- Young adults who first received a smartphone before age 13 consistently showed lower MHQ scores, with scores decreasing further the younger the age of initial ownership. For instance, those who obtained a phone at 13 averaged a score of 30, whereas those who had one by age five averaged only 1.
- In parallel, the proportion of individuals classified as distressed or struggling (defined as having five or more severe symptoms) rose by 9.5% among females and 7% among males. This pattern appeared consistently across regions, cultures, and languages, suggesting a period of heightened developmental vulnerability.
- Early ownership was also linked to reduced self-image, confidence, and emotional resilience in females, while males demonstrated lower levels of stability, calmness, self-worth, and empathy.
Further analysis indicated that early access to social media explains about 40% of the association between earlier childhood smartphone ownership and later mind health, with poor family relationships (13%), cyberbullying (10%), and disrupted sleep (12%) also playing significant downstream roles.
The researchers acknowledge the COVID-19 pandemic may have magnified these patterns, but the consistency of these trends across all global regions suggests a broader developmental impact of early smartphone access.
While current evidence does not yet prove direct causation between early smartphone ownership and later mind health and wellbeing, a limitation of the paper, the authors argue that the scale of the potential harm is too great to ignore and justifies a precautionary response.
Four key areas for policy intervention
They recommend four key areas for policymakers to address:
- Introducing mandatory education programs focused on digital literacy and mental health.
- Improving the detection of underage social media use and enforcing significant consequences for technology companies that fail to comply.
- Limiting access to social media platforms.
- Establishing tiered restrictions on smartphone use based on age.
Broader impacts and need for urgent response
“Altogether, these policy recommendations aim to safeguard mind health during critical developmental windows,” states Dr. Thiagarajan, whose research specialism focuses on the impact of environment on the brain and mind, with an interest in understanding and enabling the productive evolution of the human mind and human systems.
“Their implementation requires substantial political and societal will, effective enforcement, and a multi-stakeholder approach, but successful precedents do exist. For example, in the United States, underage alcohol access and consumption is regulated through a combination of parental, commercial, and corporate accountability.”
Concluding she states: “Our evidence suggests childhood smartphone ownership, an early gateway into AI-powered digital environments, is profoundly diminishing mind health and wellbeing in adulthood with deep consequences for individual agency and societal flourishing.
“I was initially surprised by how strong the results are. However, when you give it due consideration, it does begin to make sense that the younger developing mind is more compromised by the online environment, given their vulnerability and lack of worldly experience.
“That said, I think it is also important to point out that smartphones and social media are not the only assault to mental health and crisis facing younger adults. It explains some of the overall decline but not all of it. “Now, while more research is needed to unravel the causal mechanisms, waiting for irrefutable proof in the face of these population-level findings unfortunately risks missing the window for timely, preventative action.”
Reference: “Protecting the Developing Mind in a Digital Age: A Global Policy Imperative” by Tara C. Thiagarajan, Jennifer Jane Newson and Shailender Swaminathan, 20 July 2025, Journal of Human Development and Capabilities.
DOI: 10.1080/19452829.2025.2518313
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