Smartphone on your kid’s Christmas list? How to know when they’re ready.

Anxious, depressed, isolated and worthless — that’s how the DeKalb County School District said its 91,000 students increasingly feel. From TikTok to YouTube, Georgia’s third-largest school district points to a $4 million social media addiction problem.

Now, paired with new research from the University of Georgia, phone use is back at the forefront of conversation this holiday season. Parents of preteens will likely see smartphones topping Christmas wish lists — often not for the first time.

UGA researchers shared advice with The Atlanta Journal-Constitution for families considering a first smartphone and discussed their most recent screen time discovery.

Research sheds light on screen use

Postdoctoral researcher and UGA alumnus Cory Carvalho, along with UGA professors Niyantri Ravindran and Kalsea Koss, has been studying how screen use affects young children. Their two recently published studies come at a timely moment, as kids are getting their first phones at increasingly younger ages.

About 57% of parents to children 11 to 12 years old who reported in a new Pew Research Center survey said their kids already owned their first smartphone. Around 29% of parents to children 8 to 10 years old said the same. Parents of children under 5? Nearly 1 in 10 of their kids already had one.

Published in the Journal of Family Psychology and Development and Psychopathology, Carvalho and his associates’ studies discovered some significant links concerning such young users.

Looking at data of nearly 11,000 families, the researchers discovered that electronic media use among early adolescents was linked to more arguments and criticism among their families. Children with smartphones were also less likely to disclose their emotional problems to their parents.

“Most youth won’t show these obvious psychological declines within days of getting a smartphone or a TikTok account,” Carvalho told The Atlanta Journal-Constitution over email. “In fact, it might boost mood in the near term.

“However, we have virtually no data on long term impacts, which parents tend to care more about, and for good reason. Adolescence represents a window for building competence, confidence, and social skills that will carry them through adulthood. So, we need to be aware of any trade-offs between near term satisfaction and long-term well-being.”

Is there a best age for their first smartphone?

So, what’s the right age for a child to receive their first smartphone? Ravindran’s recommendation is clear — later is better.

“That’s constantly a concern, and our research is suggesting that later is better — not necessarily younger,” she told the AJC. “Middle school still is a little too young, according to our study. The ones who did the best, honestly, were the ones who said they hadn’t owned one yet at 14.”

A separate, unrelated study that used the same data set of nearly 11,000 children discovered kids who had their first smartphone by 12 years old were at a higher risk for depression, poor sleep and obesity.

UGA researchers suggest that electronic media use among early adolescents is linked to more arguments and criticism among their families. (Iakov Filimonov/Dreamstime/TNS)

Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta child advocacy medical director and Emory University department of medicine professor Dr. Stan Sonu, who was not involved in the studies, said age is only one factor when giving a child their first phone.

“Because you could certainly have a 17-year-old with poor impulse control and a proclivity for unhealthy degrees of comparison,” he said. “It would just not be great to go on social media.”

According to Sonu, there isn’t a “hard answer” for when a child should get their first phone — but social media? He thinks that can wait until 16.

“In my clinic, I talk about it like getting a driver’s license,” he explained. “You need to demonstrate some degree of responsibility to drive on the road with other people.”

Deciding when a child should get their first smartphone is a bit more complicated.

“For smartphones, I think it’s a more nuanced issue,” he said, adding that he understands parents want a way to get in touch with their kids.

“A single parent who is working two jobs and can’t get home until 8 p.m., they are going to need a way to get in touch with that 9-year-old child while they’re at work to check in, make sure they got home,” he said. “Do I think that requires smartphones? Not necessarily.”

Sonu suggested parents of young children get their kid a non-smartphone instead, like a flip phone.

At whatever age your child gets their first smartphone and begins using social media, Carvalho suggested keeping a watchful eye on how your kid’s doing over the following months.