What age should a child get a smartphone? The 2026 evidence

If you're wondering what age should a child get a smartphone, the honest answer is that there's no magic birthday, and the best research can't prove that phones cause harm. What it does show, from the largest long-running study of US kids, is a steady pattern. Children who owned a smartphone by 12 were doing worse on sleep, mood and weight, and a new paper adds eating disorder symptoms to that list.

So a defensible position for most families is to wait past 12 for an unrestricted smartphone, and to treat a phone, a smartphone and social media as three separate decisions. A 10-year-old who needs to reach you after school can have calls and texts without a single feed on the device.

Kids with a smartphone at 12 reported more eating disorder symptoms by 14

The new study, published in JAMA Network Open on 25 September 2026, followed 8,957 children from the ABCD study, recruited through schools at 21 US sites between 2018 and 2024. Parents reported whether their child had their own phone and when they got it. Of the group, 6,225 kids (69.5%) owned a smartphone at age 12.

The kids themselves answered yes or no to standard interview questions at 12 and again at 14. Researchers looked at four symptoms: binge eating, compensatory behaviours (things done to prevent weight gain), worry about gaining weight, and self-worth tied to weight.

The other raw numbers, smartphone owners first, then non-owners:

• Any symptom at 12: 16.1% vs 11.3%
• Binge eating at 12: 9.2% vs 6.0%
• Compensatory behaviours at 14: 20.5% vs 12.7%
• Self-worth tied to weight at 14: 7.8% vs 3.5%

The researchers then adjusted for a long list of things that could muddy the picture, including sex, race, income, parent education, puberty stage, ADHD and depressive symptoms, parental monitoring, body weight, and whether the child had a tablet, laptop or smartwatch. After that, kids with a phone at 12 were still about 1.5 times as likely to report any symptom at 14. Self-worth tied to weight was about twice as common, binge eating 1.67 times and compensatory behaviours 1.5 times.

Worry about weight gain was the exception. It wasn't linked to phone ownership overall, though at 12 girls with phones reported more of it than boys did.

The same children already showed links to sleep, mood and weight

This isn't a one-off. An earlier analysis of the same ABCD children in Pediatrics found that most got their first smartphone around 11, and those who had one by 12 had higher rates of depression, obesity and insufficient sleep than those who didn't.

The wider research points the same way, with smaller effects. A JAMA Pediatrics umbrella review published on 28 September 2026 pooled 23 meta-analyses covering 2,817,252 children in 64 countries. Screen use was linked to more anxiety and withdrawal (r = 0.10, and 0.09 for social media specifically), which is a small association. Links to emotional problems (r = 0.30) and peer problems (r = 0.28) were larger, but the uncertainty around them was very wide.

The same review found no association with executive function, maths, science or reading scores, and results varied a lot by screen type and age. I covered that nuance in more detail in whether all screen time is bad for kids.

What the eating disorder study can't tell you

The authors are upfront that this design can't show cause and effect. Phones weren't handed out at random, so the arrow could point the other way: a child already struggling might be more likely to be given a phone, or to ask for one.

The phone owners were also different kids from the start. They were more likely to be female, Black or Hispanic, from lower-income families, and further into puberty. The study didn't record what anyone actually did or saw on their phone, symptoms were yes or no so severity is missing, and bullying and existing mental health problems weren't accounted for. One more thing the authors don't raise: the data run from 2018 to 2024, right through the pandemic.

A published critique points to body weight

On 4 October 2026, Stéphane Stahl of University Hospital Regensburg posted a comment on the JAMA Network Open article page. He noted that phone owners weighed more at the start (50.8 kg vs 46.7 kg), which could explain some of the symptoms, and that weight without height is a poor measure of body fat in growing children.

He also flagged that "exercising a lot" may have been counted as a harmful compensatory behaviour when it often isn't, that exposure to idealised images was never measured, and that the study can't test whether delaying a phone prevents eating disorders. Taken together, the evidence is a consistent warning sign. It is still short of proof, and anyone who says otherwise is overselling it.

Feeds, privacy and lost sleep are the suspected links (none were tested)

The study authors and clinicians at Stony Brook Medicine offer similar possible explanations. Treat these as reasonable guesses, since the study didn't measure any of them:

• Unsupervised access to content a parent never sees
• Comparing yourself with others, and appearance-focused trends like "looksmaxxing"
• Reward and impulsivity processes that overlap with binge eating
• Night-time phone use disrupting sleep and appetite regulation

Two of those four run through feeds and social apps, and one runs through the bedroom at night. That's useful, because both are things you can control separately from whether your child carries a phone at all. If sleep is your main worry, I've written about a sensible cut-off time for teen phone use.

The average age kids get a phone is about 11, and plenty wait longer

In the ABCD children, most got a smartphone around 11. By the teen years nearly everyone has one, with 95% of US teens having access to a smartphone according to Pew figures cited in the Nagata paper.

Before 13, though, holding off is common. In a Pew Research Center survey from October 2025, 3 in 4 parents of children under 13 said their child doesn't have their own smartphone.

So when your child says everyone has one, it's worth knowing that a large minority of their classmates probably don't. Policy is moving in the same direction too: Australia's minimum age of 16 for social media accounts took effect in December 2025.

A staged first phone plan, based on AAP guidance

The American Academy of Pediatrics updated its Getting Your First Phone guidance on 22 October 2026. Teens in the research behind it said there's no perfect age. They suggested around 12 to 13, and only when there's a real need for independence, safety or keeping in touch.

1. 01
   Check need and readiness

   Ask whether your child needs to reach you on their own, whether they handle responsibility in other areas, and whether you're ready to help them.

2. 02
   Agree the rules first

   Fill in the Family Media Plan together and try Common Sense's First Phone Readiness quiz before the phone arrives.

3. 03
   Start with the basics

   Turn on shared family controls for app downloads, internet, contacts, content and purchases, and begin with talk, text, video chat, maps and camera.

4. 04
   Hold off on social media

   Start with texting only and check in regularly about whether the phone feels fun or stressful.

5. 05
   Protect sleep

   Keep the phone out of the bedroom overnight or cut its Wi-Fi before bed.

Changes in eating, mood or sleep are worth a call to the pediatrician

Once a phone arrives, watch for shifts in mood, sleep, eating habits, schoolwork or friendships. Given the findings above, pay particular attention to talk about weight or body image, especially from girls.

If something about your child's eating or weight talk worries you, Stony Brook Medicine advises bringing it to your pediatrician. For broader worries about compulsive use, this checklist of social media addiction signs is a reasonable place to start.