But while that age seems to be better for mental health<\/a>, according to a new study<\/a> led by the Children\u2019s Hospital of Philadelphia, it still carries some risks.<\/p>\n “Age 13 seems safer,\u201d Ran Barzilay, an adolescent psychiatrist at the hospital, explained to Bloomberg<\/a>. “Even then, make sure that you put some boundary on the amount of time that the kid is on the screen,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n One of the risks of giving a child a smartphone at 13 was poor sleep health, <\/a>but the researchers found it was not associated with depression or obesity.<\/p>\n The findings build on years of past guidance telling parents to delay giving their kids phones until the teenage years.<\/p>\n There were higher odds of poor sleep, depression and obesity for 12-year-olds who get smartphones, a previous study from the same team found, according to Bloomberg.<\/p>\n That risk of poor sleep, depression or obesity more than double when kids spent more than five hours a day on their phones, compared to those using them just two hours or fewer each day, the researchers noted.<\/p>\n The study did not look at which specific phone activities, like gaming or social media, might be the worst for kids\u2019 health.<\/p>\n The researchers studied the health of nearly 2,000 teens who were a part of the ABCD Study, the largest long-term study of brain development and child health in the U.S. Of the 1,959 subjects, 1,230 got a smartphone between the ages of 13-14.<\/p>\n The kids reported how long they used smartphones for each day. <\/p>\n Past research<\/a> has shown that more than half of U.S. teens are losing sleep because of their smartphone use. Sleep is crucial for overall health and brain development and teens need around 8-10 hours a night, according to federal guidance<\/a>.<\/p>\n But, there is a way to reverse course, Barzilay noted. <\/p>\n Keeping a smartphone out of a bedroom at night and limiting phone use may shield them from poor health. <\/p>\n Kids who kept their devices outside their room at night were less likely to report not getting enough sleep. <\/p>\n \u201cWhen considering the findings of this paper alongside our previous work, we can cautiously say that smartphone acquisition at age 13 appears safer than at or before age 12. However, even at age 13, our findings provide evidence informing parents and clinicians that it\u2019s important to introduce a smartphone with clear rules and supervision,\u201d Barzilay said in a news release<\/a>.<\/p>\n \u201cWe encourage families to set daily limits on smartphone use and remove them from their children\u2019s bedrooms at night,\u201d he concluded.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Your support helps us to tell the story From reproductive rights to climate change to Big Tech, The…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":629514,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[16],"tags":[2306,86,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-629513","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-mobile","tag-mobile","tag-technology","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/629513","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=629513"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/629513\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/629514"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=629513"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=629513"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=629513"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"Researchers](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/GettyImages-468968424.jpeg\")
Researchers say there\u2019s an age that kids should get a smartphone at the earliest. Getting it too early can raise the risk impacts to their sleep and mental health (AFP via Getty Images)<\/p>\n![\"Keeping](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/GettyImages-1977638069.jpeg\")
Keeping a smartphone out of a teen\u2019s bedroom at night may be able to protect them from associated negative consequences for their sleep health (Getty Images)<\/p>\n