Reclaim childhood: Take action regarding smartphones and social media use for Iowa’s children

In May, our Surgeon General recommended that we mandate a warning label on social media platforms warning of the detrimental effects to mental health of our children.

Evidence demands that we open our eyes and become aware of the cost of social media and smartphones. I am a pediatrician, born and raised Iowa farm girl, mother of three daughters and graduate of Iowa’s Carver College of Medicine in 2014. I have witnessed the erosion of our children’s development from smartphones and social media. They are inhibiting their social-emotional growth by robbing them of necessary socialization and development, which extends far beyond mental health, encompassing social awkwardness, reduced self-confidence, increased sedentary time, fragmented attention and disrupted learning, addiction, and social withdrawal. As a community, we must adopt new norms around social media and smartphones to reduce the cancerous risk they pose to our children.

Facebook became mainstream in 2006, and smartphones ubiquitous in 2012-2013. Not by accident, anxiety and depression in teens rose by 50% from 2010-2019 leading to a national mental health crisis. Loneliness and friendlessness began to surge in 2012 and academically U.S. scores for reading and math began to decline for the first time since the 1950s. Recent data shows teens spend an average of 4.8 hours on social media per day with YouTube and TikTok leading the charge.

Please note none of these hours include screen time associated with school or homework. The harms extend further with lost hours of sleep, exercise, socialization, and reading. Social media and gaming involve abnormally heavy and sustained activation of dopamine neurons and reward pathways, which means that over time the brain adapts to these high levels and then experience withdrawal without them, inducing anxiety, insomnia, and intense irritability, predisposing these children to addiction. Simultaneously, rates of pediatric obesity and pediatric Type 2 diabetes also continue to rise, with Americans averaging 93.7% of their time indoors throughout the year. While this correlation isn’t 100% causation, it certainly gives me pause, and explains what I’ve observed in my own pediatric practice.

Perhaps you’re thinking, “well my child is safe then because I haven’t allowed them to have a smartphone yet.” Kudos, but have you factored in that greater than 85% of the children they hang out with are on their phones? Even if your child isn’t on a phone, if at their cafeteria table majority of kids are staring at one, your child’s experience is altered. This is why adoption of community norms and school policies is paramount. We must collectively protect them. And even if you don’t have children, speak up because it will affect our workforce and economy for years and years to come.

Until recently, I’ve felt completely overwhelmed with how to stop or at least slow this proverbial train wreck aside from educating everyone I encounter. Recently Jonathan Haidt, social psychologist published “The Anxious Generation: How the Great Rewiring of Childhood Is Causing an Epidemic of Mental Illness.” With these four suggested norms and I feel empowered to ensure that everyone in our community and state is aware of them. These are an excellent staring place to evoke a strong change for our children. I strongly recommend that all parents, grandparents, teachers, coaches, and schools adopt these immediately:

No smartphones before high school.

No social media before age 16.

Phone-free schools — place in locked location for the entire school day.

More independence, free play and responsibility in the real world.

Please implement them and talk to your school district and community about them, not just for your child or my girls, but for the future of our world.

Dr. Padget Skogman is a graduate of the University of Iowa Carver College of Medicine and a practicing pediatrician in Cedar Rapids.