Published: 12:19 AM, 28 September 2026
Smartphones at 12 raise eating disorder risk: Study
A smartphone can put a world of appearance-focused content in a child's pocket, and new research suggests the age at which that happens may matter more than anyone realised.
Children who own a smartphone at age 12 are more likely to develop eating disorder symptoms than their peers without the devices, according to a new study.
The research, published Friday in the medical journal JAMA Network Open, draws on a wide-ranging survey of nearly 9,000 adolescents across the United States, CNN reports.
"A smartphone can put a world of appearance-focused content in a young person's pocket," said Dr Jason Nagata, the study's lead author, adding that this exposes children to images and messages that may foster unhealthy eating behaviours.
"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." It may
matter not just whether a child gets a phone, he said, but when.
Screen time and social media use are linked to a range of negative outcomes for children, including depression, lower self-worth and experimenting with drugs and alcohol, the American news outlet said.
Most previous studies focused on how much time young people spend on their devices; this one examined the age at which children first start using smartphones instead, it added.
Using data from the Adolescent Brain Cognitive Development Study, a long-term study of brain development in American children, Nagata's team found 70 percent of 12-year-olds owned a phone.
Of those, 24 percent reported at least one eating disorder symptom at age 14, against less than 16 percent among teens without a smartphone at 12.
Children with smartphones at 12 were twice as likely to tie their self-worth to their weight, and one-and-a-half times more likely to have tried controlling their weight through restrictive eating or excessive exercise, per the study.
Puberty brings major changes in body image, and it is natural for children to compare themselves with peers, Nagata said.
"But when you're comparing yourself to influencers whose images are curated, edited and filtered, that can lead to more body dissatisfaction and poor self-esteem, and then that can be a risk factor for eating disorders."
Dr Mitch Prinstein of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, who was not involved in the study, said delaying phone access by six months to a year appears to benefit children's mental health.
When children do get phones, he recommends gradually increasing their social media access rather than granting full, unrestricted use from day one.
Most platforms set 13 as the minimum age to open an account, Nagata said, though his past research found nearly two-thirds of 11 and 12-year-olds already have accounts on apps like TikTok and Instagram.
Parents who give preteens phones should consider limiting downloadable apps and keeping phones out of the bedroom, Nagata said, along with setting ground rules and having open conversations about what children see online.
