According to a book by Jonathan Haidt, the Anxious Generation, the mental health crisis among children is real, pressing, and partly due to major increases in smartphone use by kids.
“We have all of this data. We are at the point of, well, is anybody going to do something about it,” said Representative Ellen Troxclair (HD-19) in a podcast appearance last week.
Troxclair, the mother of three children herself, said that she will file a bill to address phones in schools in the upcoming legislative session in Texas.
“We have given kids a portal into endless distraction, oftentimes with wildly inappropriate content,” said Troxclair. “The most pressing thing is that it is leading to isolation, depression, and suicide, especially among our young girls. The least that we can do for them is to give them 7 hours of uninterrupted time where their brains are not tethered to these constant notifications.”
According to data compiled from the National Survey on Drug Use and Health, from 2004 to 2022, major depressive episodes among U.S. teens increased from 13% to 28% among girls and 5% to 11.5% for boys.
Reports on rates of self-harm from the CDC showed a 259% increase among girls aged 10-14 from 2004 to 2021. According to the data, these increases are unique to young girls.
The researchers and authors of the book believe that a combination of factors have contributed to this decline in youth mental health. They say the decline of free-play, increases in supervision by parents, and much less time physically spent with friends has been the result of a new paradigm - the “phone-based childhood.”
“The play-based childhood officially ends as teens’ social lives move onto smartphones filled with social media apps.”
According to their research, by 2015, one in every five American teen girls use social media more than 40 hours per week. By 2023, more than 46 percent of teens reported being online “almost all of the time.”
The group of researchers makes four recommendations for addressing the issue: 1) no smartphones before high school; 2) no social media before sixteen years old; 3) phone-free schools; 4) more outdoor play and childhood independence.
The recommendations have received support across the country, including from Arkansas Governor Sarah Huckabee Sanders, who said of the recommendations, “it’s an agenda I plan to pursue.”
In April of this year, the Wall Street Journal reported that teachers and administrators who want to ban or limit cell phone use in school would likely face opposition from parents.
Troxclair recognized that there would be pushback but was optimistic. “The pendulum is swinging back. Parents are starting to realize that this is doing a lot more damage than it is good.
