Children limiting own smartphone use to manage mental health, survey finds
They are reacting to growing concerns that spending too much time online can be harmful by taking control of their own social media and smartphone use rather than relying on parents to enforce limits, according to experts.
The number of 12- to 15-year-olds who take breaks from smartphones, computers and iPads rose by 18% to 40% since 2022, according to the audience research company GWI, drawing on a survey of 20,000 young people and their parents across 18 countries.
Prof Sonia Livingstone, the director of the LSE's Digital Futures for Children centre, said these findings were echoed in soon to be published research, which has found that children and young people are trying various options to manage how their online lives affect their wellbeing, including taking a break from social media, distracting themselves from negativity online, seeking more positive experiences on the internet and in some cases quitting social media altogether.
Livingstone said: 'Children have got the message – from their parents, the media, their own experiences – that too much social media isn't always good for them.
'So they are experimenting with different ways of protecting their wellbeing, without wanting to give up on social media entirely. I'm sure they're talking to each other about what works for them and figuring out the way ahead.'
Daisy Greenwell, the co-founder of Smartphone Free Childhood, said she was increasingly speaking to young people who were 'questioning the idea that growing up online is inevitable'.
She said: 'We regularly hear from teenagers who are exhausted by the pressure of being permanently connected and who are choosing to step back for their own mental health.
'Many of them are waking up to the fact that these platforms aren't neutral. They're designed to manipulate attention … They are realising that their time, focus and self-esteem are being monetised by some of the world's biggest companies. Taking a break has become an act of rebellion.'
This is reflected in Ofcom research. A report from 2024 found that a third (33%) of eight- to 17-year-olds who are online think their screen time is too high, while another found that 47% of 16- to 24-year-olds who use social media deactivate notifications and used 'do not disturb' mode, an increase from 40% in 2023, and compared with 28% of older adult users.
Thirty-four per cent of younger people were more likely to take a deliberate break from social media (compared with 23% who said they would not do this), 29% would delete apps because they spend too much time on them (compared with 19% who would not), and 24% would delete apps for their mental health (compared with 13% who would not).
David Ellis, a professor of behavioural science at the University of Bath, noted that teenagers may have discovered the features that let people control their time on social media and smartphones more quickly than their parents – though evidence that these features change behaviour in the long term was mixed, he said.
Ellis said: 'If someone is going to spend less time sitting in front of a screen and instead increase their levels of physical activity, then most people would probably view that as a net positive. On the other hand, that time could be replaced by something else less beneficial.'
Young people aged 18 to 25 who spoke to the Guardian previously said they felt their 'parent's generation didn't have a clue' and had granted them too much access to smartphones too young, while several said they would restrict access for their own children until their late teens.
A recent poll found that almost half of young people would rather live in a world where the internet did not exist and a similar proportion would support a digital curfew, while more than three-quarters felt worse about themselves after using social media.
The GWI research also found that social media addiction ranked among parents' top three fears for their children from a list that included climate change, war and the cost of housing, while 8% said they had become tougher about screen-time limits after watching the hit Netflix show Adolescence about the dangers of online misogyny.
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