Written evidence submitted by Common Sense (SMH0135)
Technology offers tremendous opportunities for learning and growth, but attention-based business models are driving us -- and our kids -- to spend more and more time on our devices. Half of all teens feel addicted to their phones, and nearly all kids, even under the age of 1, live in homes with mobile devices. Parents, educators, and our society are overwhelmed.
Common Sense is an independent nonprofit organization dedicated to helping kids thrive in a rapidly changing world. Our research offers independent data on media and technology use and its impact (both positive and negative) on children's physical, emotional, social, and intellectual development. The mission of Common Sense Research is to provide parents, educators, health organizations, and policymakers with reliable, independent data on children's use of media and technology and the impact it has on their physical, emotional, social, and intellectual development. Read our latest research.
Overview by the Numbers:
1. Kids are gaining access to devices when they are very young
● 98% of children from newborn to age 8 have access to a mobile device at home, compared with 52% in 2011. (Common Sense Media 2017. The Common Sense Census: Media Use by Kids Age Zero to Eight)
● 94% of teens age 13 to 17 own or have access to a smartphone and use social media (April 2017 study by The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research)
2. Half of teens feel addicted to technology and social media
● 1 out of every 2 teens feels addicted to their smartphones and the majority of parents (60%) feel their kids are addicted. (Common Sense Media 2016. Dealing with Devices: The Parent-Teen Dynamic)
● 78% of teens check their devices at least hourly. (2016 Common Sense Research. Technology addiction: Concern, controversy, and finding balance)
● 72% of teens feel the need to immediately respond to texts, social networking messages, and other notifications. (2016 Common Sense Research. Technology addiction: Concern, controversy, and finding balance)
● 77% of parents feel their child gets distracted by his or her devices and doesn’t pay attention when they are together at least a few times per week. (2016 Common Sense Research. Technology addiction: Concern, controversy, and finding balance)
● Half of parents (50 percent) say they are at least "somewhat" concerned that their children's mobile device use is negatively affecting their mental health; nearly one in five parents (18 percent) say they are "extremely" or "very" concerned (Common Sense Media, 2018)
3. Technology use may be related to worse mental health outcomes for kids, though research is mixed
● Among adolescents who spent 1 hour a day on electronic devices, 29% were found to have at least one suicide-related outcome (considered/planned/attempted suicide or felt very lonely in the last 12 months); among adolescents who spent more than 5 hours a day on electronic devices, 48% were found to have at least one suicide-related outcome (Twenge, Joiner, Rogers and Marin, 2017).
● Cyberbullying: Up to 40% of children have been involved in a cyberbullying accident. (Kowalski, R. M., Giumetti, G. W., Schroeder, A. N., & Lattanner, M. R. (2014). Bullying in the digital age: A
critical review and meta-analysis of cyberbullying research among youth. Psychological Bulletin, 140(4), 1073.
● The more people used Facebook over a two week period, the worse they subsequently felt (Kross, et al., 2013)
● A systematic review of 43 research papers found positive relationships between social media use and increased self-esteem, perceived social support, increased social capital, safe identity experimentation, and opportunities for self-disclosure in adolescents. Negative effects included social isolation, depression, and cyberbullying. However, most studies reported either mixed or no effects of social media on adolescent well-being. (Best, Manktelow, & Taylor, 2014).
● In a study of over 120,000 adolescents, moderate use of technology was associated with small positive effects on well-being. No use at all was associated with lower mental well-being, while smartphone use in excess of 2 hours a day was associated with lower mental well-being. However, the effects explain about 1% of the overall well-being of young people (Przybylski & Weinstein, 2017)
4.Health and developmental concerns
● 34% of kids with no access to mobile devices at bedtime report poor sleep quality, compared with 44% of kids who have a device in the sleep environment and 52% of kids who use a device before going to bed. A systematic review and meta-analysis found that bedtime access to and use of a media device were significantly associated with the following: inadequate sleep quantity, poor sleep quality, and excessive daytime sleepiness (Carter, Rees, & Hale, 2016)
● A study of 2-year-olds found that BMI increases for every hour per week of media consumed.(Wen, L. M., Baur, L. A., Rissel, C., Xu,H., & Simpson, J. M. (2014). Correlates of body mass index and overweight and obesity of children aged 2 years:findings from the healthy beginnings trial. Obesity (Silver Spring, Md.), 22(7),1723–1730.
● The brains of young people diagnosed with internet addiction show significantly less graymatter (associated with planning, decision-making,and impulse control).Zhou, Y., Lin, F., Du, Y., Qin, L., Zhao,Z., Xu, J., & Lei, H. (2011). Gray matter abnormalities in Internet addiction:A voxel-based morphometry study.European Journal of Radiology, 79(1),92–95.
● 90% of adults and 75% of children report having at least one electronic device in their bedrooms. (2014 National Sleep Foundation).
5.Girls are disproportionately affected
● 65% of girls say they feel pressure from media to reach an unrealistic standard of beauty (Dove, 2016)
● Overall time spent on Facebook was unrelated to body image, but teen girls who engaged in more photo- and appearance-related activities reported greater thin ideal internalization, self-objectification, weight dissatisfaction, and a drive for thinness (Meier & Gray, 2014)
6. Teens report positive influence of social media
● Many more teens report a positive impact of social media use on their emotional well-being than a negative one, though most teens don’t think their use of social media affects their well-being at all (Common Sense Media 2012. Social Media, Social Life:How Teens View Their Digital Lives).
● How you use social media matters: seeking and perceiving social support on Facebook was associated with decreased depressed mood for adolescents; seeking and not perceiving social support on Facebook was associated with an increased depressed mood (Frison & Eggermount, 2015).
● Half (52%) of teen social media users say social media has mainly helped their relationships, compared to 4% who say it has mainly hurt them (Common Sense Media, 2012).
Key Findings by Common Sense Research Reports
News and America's Kids: How Young People Perceive and Are Impacted by the News (2017)
The news isn't what it used to be. What was once shared by newspapers, radio, and TV now comes in Snapchat stories, on Facebook Live broadcasts, in Twitter conversations, and through other new forms of communication. News and America's Kids investigates how children get their news, how much they trust different news sources, whether they can spot "fake news," and more. This report captures children's candid feelings via an online survey. The survey was conducted in January 2017 and included 853 children age 10–18 drawn from a nationally representative panel, as well as an oversample of African-American and Hispanic/Latino children drawn from an opt-in web panel. Watch the video and read our blog post for highlights.
Key Findings:
● Kids see racial and gender bias in the news.
○ Half of children agree with the statement "Whenever I see an African-American or Latino person in the news, they're usually involved in crimes, violence, or other problems." And only one in three kids agrees that the news treats women and men equally fairly.
● What kids are seeing scares them and makes them feel depressed.
○ Content can be disturbing,causing most kids to feel afraid, angry, and/or sad or depressed. Tweens are more likely than teens to say that the news makes them feel afraid.
● Kids also often are fooled by fake news.
○ Less than half of children agree that they can tell fake news stories from real ones. Experiences with fake news may be a reason that only one in four kids puts "a lot" of trust in the information they receive from news organizations.
● Kids trust family for news (but still prefer to get it from social media).
○ Sixty-six percent say they trust the news they hear from family "a lot," with teachers being the second-most-trusted source. However, when asked to select their preferred news source, online news sources win out.
Technology Addiction: Concern, Controversy, and Finding Balance (2016)
Over the past decade, society has witnessed massive changes in the way media and technology intersect with how we work and live. Devices are more mobile, functional, and seemingly indispensable. What are the human costs of an "always connected" lifestyle, especially for our children? This brief examines the latest scientific research about problematic media use, articulating its pervasiveness, forms, and possible impacts on youth's well-being and development, yielding some surprising findings and raising many more questions.
Common Sense also polled over 1,200 parents and teens to find out how the saturation of mobile devices in family life is playing out in homes and child-parent relationships. Learn more in our infographic, "Dealing with Devices: The Parent-Teen Dynamic."
Key Findings:
● 1 out of every 2 teens feels addicted to their smartphones and the majority of parents (60%) feel their kids are addicted.
● 77% of parents feel their child gets distracted by his or her devices and doesn’t pay attention when they are together at least a few times per week.
● Internet addiction is potentially serious and needs clarification and additional study for people to understand the impact on children’s physical, cognitive, social, and emotional development.
● Our digital lifestyles, which include frequent multitasking, may be harming our ability to remain focused.
● Media and technology use is a source of tension for many families.
● Problematic media use may be related to lower empathy and social well-being
● Technology may facilitate new ways of expressing typical adolescent developmental needs, such as the need for connection and validation from peer groups
● Embracing a balanced approach to media and technology, and supporting adult role-modeling, is recommended to prevent problematic media use.
The Common Sense Census: Media Use by Tweens and Teens (2015)
This is a large-scale study that explores young people's use of the full range of media and technology. It offers a comprehensive picture of the use of media by kids, age 8 to 18 in the U.S., including the level of enjoyment, frequency of use, and amount of time devoted to a wide array of media activities and devices. Watch video and see our infographic or blog post for highlights.
Key Findings:
● On any given day, American teenagers (13- to 18-years old) average about nine hours (8:56) of entertainment media use, excluding time spent at school or for homework. Teens average more than six and a half hours (6:40) of screen media use a day.
● Tweens (8- to 12-year-olds) use an average of about six hours’ (5:55) worth of entertainment media daily. Tweens average more four and a half hours (4:36) of screen media use a day.
● There are big differences in screen time use among youth!
○ On any given day, among tweens: 6% don’t use screen media at all, 28% use it for two hours or less, 27% spend between four to eight hours with screen media, and 11% more than eight hours.
○ On any given day, among teens: 6% don’t use screen media at all, 17% use it for two hours or less, 31% spend between four to eight hours with screen media, and 26% more than eight hours.
Smartphones
● 67% of teens 13-18 have a smartphone
● Among all teens, average time spent using a smartphone per day: 2:42
● Among teens who use a smartphone, average time spent using it: 4:38
Demographic differences in smartphone ownership and use.
● There are substantial differences in smartphone ownership by income. Almost all (94 percent of) teens in higher-income families say someone in their home has a smartphone, while only 65 percent of lower-income teens do. Three-quarters (78 percent) of higher-income teens have their own smartphones, compared with 51 percent of lower-income teens.
● Lower-income teens who use smartphones on any given day spend far more time doing so (6:18) than their higher-income peers (3:03), possibly because they have fewer other Internet-capable devices such as laptops, desktop computers, and tablets.
Social Media, Social Life: How Teens View Their Digital Lives (2012)
This research study provides a snapshot of how U.S. teens experience the role of social media in their social and emotional lives. Using survey data from a nationally representative, probability-based sample of 13- to 17-year-olds
Key Findings:
● Teens are avid, daily users of social media.
○ Nine out of 10 (90%) 13- to 17-year-olds have used some form of social media.
○ For the vast majority of teens, social and other digital communications media are a daily part of life. Two-thirds (68%) of teens text every day, half (51%) visit social networking sites daily, and 11% send or receive tweets at least once every day.
○ In fact, more than a third (34%) of teens visit their main social networking site several times a day. One in four (23%) teens is a “heavy” social media user, meaning they use at least two different types of social media each and every day.
● Teens are much more likely to report that using social media has a positive impact on their social and emotional lives than a negative one.
○ More than one in four teens say that using their social networking site makes them feel less shy (29%) and more outgoing (28%); one in five says it makes them feel more confident (20%), more popular (19%), and more sympathetic to others (19%); and 15% say it makes them feel better about themselves.
● Most teens prefer face-to-face communication, and many of them think using social media can interfere with that.
○ Despite being avid social media users, talking to each other in person is still teens’ favorite way to communicate. About half (49%) of all teens say their favorite way to communicate with their friends is in person. Texting is the next favorite (33%), with social networking (7%), talking on the phone (4%), and Twitter (1%) far behind.
● Some teens wish they could disconnect more often—and that the people around them would, too.
○ Forty-three percent of teens agree strongly or somewhat that they sometimes wish they could “unplug,” and more than a third agree at least “somewhat” that they sometimes wish they could go back to a time when there was no Facebook