News Investigation

An Important New Study on Phones and Kids

Jun 2025 🇺🇸 Cal Newport (calnewport.com)

In this essay on his own site, Cal Newport summarizes a large consensus study in which roughly 120 researchers across eleven academic disciplines evaluated 26 separate claims about smartphones, social media, and adolescent mental health. He reports the panel reached strong (over 90 percent) agreement on several claims, including that adolescent mental health has declined in a number of Western countries over the past two decades, that smartphone and social media use is linked to attention difficulties and compulsive-use patterns, and that, among girls specifically, social media use is linked to body dissatisfaction and elevated risk of unwanted sexual attention online. Newport argues the research field is no longer meaningfully divided on these associations and advocates a precautionary approach to early platform access. TechKids Foundation cites this essay as a technology critic's own reading of a major cross-disciplinary consensus statement relevant to the library's core subject.

>90% expert agreement

Newport reports the ~120-researcher consensus panel reached over 90% agreement that adolescent mental health has declined in several Western countries over the past 20 years.

26 claims evaluated

The consensus statement Newport summarizes had roughly 120 researchers across 11 disciplines evaluate 26 separate claims about phones, social media, and adolescent mental health.

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CITATION

Newport, Cal. "An Important New Study on Phones and Kids." calnewport.com, June 23, 2025. https://calnewport.com/an-important-new-study-on-phones-and-kids/

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