If you grew up in the early 2000s, the chances are you were in your teens, or close to it, when you got your first phone.

After all, besides playing Snake, answering a call from your mom asking why you weren’t home yet, or sending a heavily abbreviated text to your best friend, there wasn’t much reason to have one.

But then came the smartphone era, where everyone needed the internet – and at its heart, social media – in their pocket.

And things are very different for kids growing up today, where having a phone before you hit your tweens is by no means an uncommon occurrence.

But all this may be coming at a price, according to a recent study published in the Journal of Human Development and Capabilities.

In fact, according to their data, which was collected by Sapien Labs’ Global Mind Project, childhood smartphone ownership is having devastating effects on our young peoples’ mental health.

The correlation is clear: the younger a child obtains a smartphone, the more likely they are to have mental health struggles into their adulthood.

This is largely to do with unrestricted and unlimited access to social media – where cyberbullying and unrealistic standards are rife – as well as the way that increased online time decreases face-to-face contact time with friends and family for young people, with consequences on social skills too, as Sapien Labs Chief Scientist Dr Tara Thiagarajan explained in a statement:

“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. 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.”

With poorer self-worth and a higher likelihood of aggression and suicidal thoughts, it’s clear that something needs to change.

That’s why Sapien Labs are recommending policy changes – at parental, educational, and governmental levels – to help our young people develop into safe and healthy adults, as Dr Thiagarajan continued:

“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.”

Given the shocking statistics that some children already have a phone by the time they’re starting elementary school, and the lack of rigor in screening the age of social media users, greater safeguarding measures need to be put in place.

After all, you only get one childhood. It should be protected at all costs.

If you thought that was interesting, you might like to read about why we should be worried about the leak in the bottom of the ocean.