Children using social media at younger age appear to do worse in school tests — SkimNews
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- Study of more than 5,000 Italian schoolchildren found that pupils who opened social media accounts at 11-12 scored lower in maths and reading tests at age 16, falling behind by roughly six months of learning.
- The performance gap appeared at age 13-14 and persisted or widened by age 15-16 for maths and Italian, but no gap appeared for English—possibly because social media content in English provides incidental language practice.
- Dr Marco Gui of the University of Milano-Bicocca, the study's first author, said frequency of phone-checking throughout the day and night was one of the best predictors of the score gap, pointing to a constant state of alert as a key mechanism.
- The benefit of delaying social media was roughly equivalent to half the gain from intensive tutoring, according to the research published in Nature Human Behaviour.
- The study lands as the UK is poised to introduce a social media ban for under-16s, following Australia's ban last year; Gui called age limits an "emergency policy" and argued platforms themselves must be redesigned to be less addictive.
- Professor Dennis Ougrin of Queen Mary University of London said the takeaway for parents, educators and policymakers is not necessarily to ban social media but to help young people develop healthy interaction habits.
Why it matters: Parents and policymakers weighing social media restrictions now have a specific measurable effect to anchor the debate: early adopters fall about six months behind in learning, roughly half the benefit of intensive tutoring. The study points to phone-checking frequency as the most predictive risk factor, giving families a concrete behavioral lever rather than a sweeping verdict on screen time.
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