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Excessive social media use during the COVID-19 pandemic exacerbated adolescent mental health challenges

Written by Emma G Duerden & Michaela Kent | Published January 18, 2024

During the COVID-19 pandemic, young people were drastically affected by the sudden shift to a digital world and the explosion of a reliance on screens. School closures, coupled with social isolation, led to dramatic increases in daily screen time use and exacerbated mental health challenges for many young people.

Early-Life Digital Media Experiences and Development of Atypical Sensory Processing

Written by Karen Frankel Heffler, MD; Binod Acharya, MS, MS; Keshab Subedi, MS, MSc; et al | Published January 8, 2024

Greater early-life digital media exposures may be associated with atypical sensory processing. Further research is needed to understand why early media exposure is associated with specific sensory-related behaviors, including those seen in autism spectrum disorder, and if minimizing screen media at a young age can improve subsequent sensory-related outcomes.

One in six school-aged children experiences cyberbullying, finds new WHO/Europe study

Written by Alina Cosma, Michal Molcho, William Pickett | Published January 4, 2024

The Health Behaviour in School-aged Children (HBSC) survey, of more than 279,000 people aged 11, 13 and 15 years old in 2021/22, suggests the proportion of adolescents who reported being cyberbullied has increased since 2018, from 12% to 15% for boys and 13% to 16% for girls.

Types of On-Screen Content and Mental Health in Kindergarten Children

Written by Haiwa Wang, BS; Jin Zhao, MD, PhD; Zhangsheng Yu, PhD; et al | Published December 4, 2023

In this cohort study of 15 965 kindergarten children, screen exposure was consistently associated with risk for mental health problems, but the associations varied by content type. Specifically, under a given total screen time, children with a higher proportion of screen exposure to educational programs had a lower risk for mental health problems, whereas the non–child-directed programs were associated with a higher risk for such problems. Findings of this study suggest that both screen time and on-screen content matter for children’s mental health.

How Early Digital Experience Shapes Young Brains During 0-12 Years: A Scoping Review

Written by Dandan Wua, Xinyi Dong, Danqing Liu & Hui Li | Published November 16, 2023

This scoping review has achieved three major conclusions. First, digital experience does have positive and negative impacts on children’s brains, structurally and functionally. Second, digital experience could cause structural and functional changes in children’s frontal, parietal, temporal, and occipital lobes, brain connectivity, and brain networks. And the most vulnerable area is the prefrontal cortex and its associated executive function. Third, digital experience has positive and negative impacts on children’s brain structure longitudinally.

Youth Perspectives on Online Safety, 2022: an Annual Report of Youth Attitudes and Experiences

Written by Caroline Neiswender, Amanda Goharian, Melissa Stroebel, et al. | Published November 15, 2023

New research from Thorn, a nonprofit that builds technology to defend children from sexual abuse, found a notable increase in the sharing of self-generated child sexual abuse material (SG-CSAM) within offline romantic relationships. More than two in three minors (69%) who have shared their own SG-CSAM with someone they knew offline said it was with a boyfriend or girlfriend, up from just over half (54%) in 2021.

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CSS Teens & Screens 2023: Romance or Nomance?

Written by Rivas-Lara, S., Kotecha, H., Pham, B., & Uhls, Y.T. | Published October 25, 2023

The new story for this year is that adolescents are much more interested in watching stories featuring friendships and platonic relationships, what we are labeling “nomance.” After the pandemic years, it seems young people are craving these feel-good character relationships.

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Constant Companion: A Week in the Life of a Young Person's Smartphone Use

Written by Jenny S. Radesky, M.D., Heidi M. Weeks, Ph.D., Alexandria Schaller, B.A., et al. | Published October 1, 2023

Teens are fielding a barrage of notifications from the apps on their phones. On a typical day, participants received a median of 237 notifications. Of those, about a quarter arrived during the school day, and 5% at night. School phone use is common, and policies are inconsistent. During school hours almost all of the participants used their phones at least once, for a median of 43 minutes. But they also reported that policies about phone use in schools vary—some times even from classroom to classroom—and aren't always enforced.

Sedentary time in children linked with heart damage in young adulthood

Written by European Society of Cardiology | Published August 23, 2023

Hours of inactivity during childhood could be setting the stage for heart attacks and strokes later in life, according to new research. The study found that sedentary time accumulated from childhood to young adulthood was associated with heart damage -- even in those with normal weight and blood pressure.

Screen Time at Age 1 Year and Communication and Problem-Solving Developmental Delay at 2 and 4 Years

Written by Ippei Takahashi, MMSc; Taku Obara, PhD; Mami Ishikuro, PhD; et al | Published August 21, 2023

In this study, greater screen time for children aged 1 year was associated with developmental delays in communication and problem-solving at ages 2 and 4 years. These findings suggest that domains of developmental delay should be considered separately in future discussions on screen time and child development.

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