Is this proof parents don’t need to worry about screen time?

Oxford study finds gadgets aren’t nearly as damaging as cannabis – or bullying

PARENTS should relax over fears that the internet is leaving teens depressed – as bullying and smoking marijuana are much worse for mental health, a study finds.

Research into 300,000 teens in the UK and United States analysed how much effect levels of screen use had on teenage well-being.

They found that it accounts for just 0.4 per cent of the well-being of adolescents – and getting enough sleep and eating breakfast were more important.

The effect of smoking marijuana was nearly three times more important as a factor in poor mental health and depression. Being bullied was four times more likely to lead to unhappiness, the researchers said.

Technology use had as much of a negative impact as eating potatoes or wearing glasses, two factors also looked at in the study. Professor Andrew Przybylski, of the University of Oxford, said: ‘Our findings demonstrate that screen use itself has at most a tiny association with youth mental health. The 0.4 per cent contribution of screen use on young people’s mental health needs to be put in context for parents and policymakers.

‘Within the same dataset, we were able to demonstrate that including potatoes in your diet showed a similar association with adolescent wellbeing. Wearing corrective lenses had an even worse association.’

In comparison, smoking marijuana and being bullied was found, on average, to have a 2.7 times and 4.3 times more negative association with adolescent mental health than screen use.

Activities such as getting enough sleep and eating breakfast, often overlooked in media coverage, had a much stronger association with wellbeing than technology use.

The study was based on three large sets of data, totalling more than 300,000 individuals surveyed between 2007 and 2016.

Andy Burrows, a child online safety expert at the NSPCC, said the results showed that the content the adolescent was viewing was more important than the length of time spent online.

He said: ‘This extensive research confirms we need to focus on whether young people’s online behaviour is age-appropriate and safe, rather than on screen time. It doesn’t matter whether they are sitting in front of a screen for two minutes, or two hours, we must ensure they are safe.

‘The impact of internet-facilitated abuse to children and teenagers can be severe and lasting, which is why we need comprehensive action to ensure they are much better protected.

‘In its forthcoming White Paper the Government needs to create a new online regulator with the powers to investigate and fine the social networks that fail to keep young people safe.’

■ A study has found that trying cannabis as a teenager can cause changes in the brain linked to anxiety.

The brains of 14-year-olds who tried cannabis only once or twice were found to be abnormally thick for their age.

The 46 teenagers in the study showed signs they were more anxious about daily activities such as meeting new people or travelling alone, but the researchers from the University of Vermont say the study is small and more research is needed.