The Average Kid Gets a Smartphone at 10-11 and Is on It Until Midnight
In this video, Dr. Justin Baeder discusses alarming statistics about children's smartphone use, including that 6 in 10 are on their phones between 10 PM and midnight.
Key Takeaways
- Kids are getting phones too young - The average age of smartphone acquisition (10-11) is years before children can manage the responsibility
- Nighttime phone use is devastating - 60% of kids using phones late at night means chronic sleep deprivation across the student population
- Parents must act - These statistics represent parenting decisions that directly harm children's development and learning
Transcript
A shocking 6 out of 10 kids use their phones between midnight and 6 a.m.
When kids go to bed with their phones, they don't really go to bed.
And even if they do go to bed, they wake up in the middle of the night and get on their phones, either to text their friends or because their friends are texting them or they're calling them.
Lots of kids are apparently up in the middle of the night doing who knows what.
And the best case scenario is that they're just talking to their friends.
It gets worse from there.
But as Jean Twenge says in her new book, 10 Rules for Raising Kids in a High-Tech World, I just talked to her for Principal Center Radio, and we'll get that interview published soon.
As she says, one of the biggest risks, even if nothing bad happens, is that kids will simply not get good sleep.
And sleep is linked.
to lots of things, like you're much more likely to be depressed and anxious if you are not getting enough sleep.
And if kids are going to bed with their phones in their rooms, they are not going to get enough sleep.
And the average age now of getting a cell phone is 10 or 11, not 14, not 15, not 16, 10 to 11 years old.
So even in elementary school, we have kids who are on their phones between midnight and 5 a.m.
when nobody should be on their phones.
Everybody should be asleep.
Kids are texting each other.
Kids are calling each other.
And we as adults have to be the ones who say, this is one of our rules.
This book is called 10 Rules to Give Your Kid.
Not suggestions, not things to talk about with your kid.
Yes, talk about them.
But they need to be rules that come from adults because we need to make sure that our kids are not only safe, but that they're also getting a good night's sleep.
Let me know what you think.