New USF research finds smartphones may benefit kids

TAMPA, Fla. — There’s a new study by the University of South Florida, the Life in Media Survey, looking into kids’ digital media use.

It is the first lifespan study looking into this.

“The first thing we did was to get some baseline and some descriptive data by surveying 1,500 kids or so in Florida,” said Justin Martin, lead researcher and associate professor at USF.

WATCH: New USF research finds smartphones may benefit kids

He explained some of the data they found.

“Our data show that 78% of 11, 12, and 13-year-olds in Florida have their own smartphones already,” said Martin.

His team expected to find that smartphone ownership was associated with negative impacts for kids 11 to 13.

“But that’s not what we found. In almost every wellness measure we assessed, kids who have their own smartphones fared better than kids who don’t,” said Martin.

Those results were surprising.

They showed that kids with smartphones were less likely to report depression and anxiety symptoms, were more likely to spend time in person with friends and that there’s an association between owning a smartphone and kids feeling better about themselves.

The survey found that it’s not necessarily owning a device that’s harmful to children, but rather what they do on it.

According to the study, social media platforms dedicated to posting, like TikTok and Instagram, can be harmful for kids’ mental health.

“Publicly posting online was associated with reporting depressive symptoms, reporting symptoms of anxiety with sleep deprivation,” said Martin.

Some troubling data from this research showed that about 6 out of 10 participants said they endured a form of cyberbullying.

“We found that cyberbullying is very pervasive,” said Martin.

He believes this project is important because there’s a big gap in research out there about the long-term impacts of smartphone use.

“Researchers have no idea what the effects of using social platforms heavily at age 11 and 12 are on a 30-year-old adult,” said Martin.

He hopes this new data will give parents and policymakers useful, timely information about smartphones.

“Our findings can bring down the temperature in the room a little bit on the discussion of kids having smartphones,” said Martin.

The research team advises parents to keep kids off social media posting platforms until they’re older and to be on guard for cyberbullying.

Smartphones have also been found to have a negative impact on sleep.

“We have a really clear recommendation from our first study, which is don’t let kids and smartphones sleep in the same room. Those who do, aren’t getting enough sleep for their brain development. And those who sleep with their phone in another room do get the minimum amount of sleep for their brain development that’s recommended by sleep researchers,” said Martin.

Their goal with this study is to survey the same kids for many years into the future to gather more data about the long-term impacts. They’re working on acquiring funding for that.

The research team is also forming a Youth Advisory group.

“This will be a group of 18-20, 12 to 16 year olds who will sit down in groups of six to seven kids at a time and respond to our data and our findings and give us feedback on whether what we observed is in line with their experience, whether we’re off, and whether we’re asking the wrong questions,” said Martin.