--- title: "Horrifying Research Finds What Happens to 12-Year-Olds Who Get Smart Phones" description: "New research suggests a grim mental health consequence of giving smartphones to children before they hit their teen years." date: "2026-09-29" modified: "2026-09-29" authors: - name: "Frank Landymore" job_title: "Contributing Writer" link: "https://futurism.com/authors/flandymore.md" url: "https://futurism.com/health-medicine/horryfing-research-12-year-old-smartphones" categories: - "Brain" - "Health & Medicine" - "Mental Health" --- # Horrifying Research Finds What Happens to 12-Year-Olds Who Get Smart Phones ![A color-treated photo of a teen using a smartphone.]() *Shutterstock / Futurism* New research suggests a grim consequence of giving smartphones to minors before they even hit their teen years. By analyzing an existing survey of thousands of children and teenagers in the US, the researchers found that kids who owned a smartphone by the time they were 12 years old were more likely to develop eating disorders compared to kids who didn't own one, they reported in a [new study]() published in the journal *JAMA Network Open*. Beyond the devices themselves, the findings are the latest to illustrate the [perils of being exposed to social media]() at such a formative part of a child's life. "A smartphone can put a world of appearance-focused content in a young person's pocket," exposing them to images and messages that may foster unhealthy eating behaviors, lead author Jason Nagata, an adolescent medicine specialist at the University of California San Francisco, [told *CNN*](). "It's important for parents to be aware that getting a smartphone isn't just about the device. It can change a child's access to different content and exposures in the digital world." To study the impact of young smartphone ownership, the researchers analyzed a widely cited cognitive development survey of thousands of schoolchildren. A full 70 percent of the participants, or over 6,200 adolescents, said they already had a smartphone at 12 years old. Among 12-year-old phone owners, the most common eating disorder symptom reported was binge-eating at nine percent. And by the time they were 14, around 24 percent of this cohort reported having at least one eating disorder symptom. Tellingly, these figures were smaller among kids who didn't receive a phone in their tween years, of whom, by the time they were fourteen, only 16 percent reporting eating disorder symptoms. The culprit, almost certainly, is [exposure to social media](). One clue to this is that the kids in the survey who owned smartphones at 12 were twice as likely to tie their self-worth to weight. They were also 50 percent more likely to try offset weight gain with exercising or disordered behaviors like self-induced vomiting. "When you're comparing yourself to influencers whose images are curated, edited and filtered," Nagata told *CNN*, "that can lead to more body dissatisfaction and poor self-esteem, and then that can be a risk factor for eating disorders." These findings may not be surprising to parents familiar with the risks of smartphones and social media. Indeed, the survey underpinning the researchers' work already found that each additional hour of screen time by adolescents was linked to a higher risk ED symptoms and tying their perceived self-worth to weight. Where this study carves out a niche is highlighting how the age they started using the devices into comes into play. If these findings are anything to go by, even slightly delaying kids' access to smartphones could make a meaningful difference for their mental health. Mitch Prinstein, a professor of psychology and neuroscience at the University of North Carolina, and who wasn't involved in the study, told *CNN* that emerging research suggests that an effective delay could be as small as six months to a year. **More on mental health:** [*Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang Says That Sacrificing Our Children’s Minds to AI Is a Price He’s Willing to Pay*]() ## Author At Futurism, my work has often centered on bringing a sense of clarity and insight to complex topics ranging from the regulation of emerging technologies to the esoteric ideologies of Silicon Valley executives, while striving not to lose the poetic sense of awe inspired by often-obscure fields like astrophysics and quantum computing. I broke the story of CNET using AI to produce articles that turned out to be riddled with factual errors and plagiarism — a dam-breaking inflection point, as I've reported, that's inspired copycats and endless discourse while beguiling stakeholders ranging from tech giants to purveyors of spam around the web. My work at Futurism has been cited by publications including CBS News, the Los Angeles Times, Vice, Gizmodo, Engadget, the Verge, and Vanity Fair. I grew up in locales ranging from India to China, and now live in the exotic suburbs of Virginia. In my free time, I'm an avid reader of weird sci-fi literature, an aficionado of East Asian cinema, and, regrettably, a relapsed gamer. Allegedly, I’m working on a debut novel, currently untitled. ### Author social links [Bluesky]()