Are Screens or Parents to Blame for the Teen Mental Health Crisis?

The following article is sponsored by PragerU and written by Jill Simonian, a California mom and Director of Outreach for PragerU Kids, which provides free, values-based educational content in history, civics, and financial literacy for students K-12.

Recent revelations in Jonathan Haidt’s book The Anxious Generation, headlines touting new parental controls on Instagram, and the U.S. Surgeon General’s 2024 recommendation for a warning label on social media platforms are challenging parents and educators to stare down severe, irreversible consequences likely linked to unfettered screen time for children and teens.

Additional data that also shocked the news cycle earlier this year includes a 50 percent increase in the rate of depression in young people over the last decade, as well as a recent survey from the U.S. Substance Abuse and Mental Services Administration (SAMHSA) that cites that eight million teens between ages 12 to 17 are now getting counseling, medication, or other treatments for mental health.

Is this tragic epidemic the consequence of lazy parenting and cowardly educators who refused to heed warnings based on previous scientific research and medical recommendations?

Countless children and teens are experiencing a crisis of loneliness, detachment, teen suicide, gender dysphoria, and behavioral and psychological issues. Years before the COVID lockdowns, forced isolation, and the rampant increase in screen usage among young people, many were sounding the alarm about the potential long-term dangers of excessive screens and social media for youth.

In 2015, the American Academy of Pediatrics cited that more than two hours of screen time per day can make toddlers almost eight times more likely to develop attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) by the time they turn five. In 2019, the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA) Pediatrics found that two to three-year-olds who viewed screens for two to three hours a day showed slowed development in motor skills, communication, problem-solving, and social skills by the time they reached three to five years old.

But does screen time actually impact the physical structure, emotional development, and mental health of children’s brains? In 2016, neuroscientists (Dr. Peter Whybrow of UCLA and head of addiction research for the Pentagon and U.S. Navy Dr. Andrew Doan) labeled too much screen time as “digital heroin” and pointed out that images of digitally-engaged brains were comparable to how cocaine affects the mind. In 2018, CBS News’ 60 Minutes reported that early research from a study by the National Institute of Health (NIH) revealed significant premature thinning of the brain’s cortex in nine to ten-year-olds who used smartphones, tablets, and/or video games more than seven hours per day.

As for elementary school aged children, NIH’s 2018 research additionally determined that kids who spent more than two hours per day on screens achieved lower scores on thinking and language tests. Today, schools across the nation consistently report record numbers of students who are not able to complete a school day without disruptive behavioral challenges or failure to achieve proficiency in reading and math. As of 2023, the National Assessment of Education Progress (NAEP) reported that only 43 percent of American fourth graders scored at or above a proficient level for reading.

Does this mean that overwhelming numbers of children and teens now navigate life with developmental brain delays and/or damage, arguably caused by factors that parents and teachers conveniently ignored for nearly a decade?

While correlation does not always equal causation, PragerU’s new short documentary The Void delves into today’s mental health epidemic and offers some solutions to Gen Z and their families for finding purpose, taking on responsibilities, and overcoming loneliness and detachment.

Here are a few ways to improve the next generation’s trajectory:

• Ditch screen time that delays toddler development. Educators have flagged some of today’s most popular children’s shows, such as “Cocomelon,” for sensory overload and hindering attention spans. There is quality, age-appropriate, and educationally sound digital content for children—find it, use it, enjoy it, limit it.
• Wait until age 13 to give kids a phone—without social media or internet access.
• Prohibit content that dumbs teens down. Teens in China are reportedly fed math and science videos on TikTok while America’s young people are lured into physically and emotionally damaging content—we are smarter than this.
• Ban smartphones during classroom time (excluding emergencies). Many schools already implement this—in South Carolina (PragerU Kids’ most recent educational partner), Superintendent of Education Ellen Weaver has advocated that banning smartphones during class time gives teachers and students “freedom to focus.”

When we know better, we can do better. A sound and solid country cannot continue to exist if the next generation isn’t healthy. Parents and educators must wake up, shape up, and follow the compounding data that’s pinpointing screen time as one of the major factors paralyzing the physical, developmental, and emotional development of our children, as well as our nation’s future.

Visit PragerU to learn more. 

WATCH “THE VOID” HERE