An Italian study finds children who joined social media as pre-teens had worse grades in Italian and maths tests – but they did fine in English.
Kids who opened a social media account aged 11-12 appeared to be roughly 6 months behind in schooling compared to those who waited until they were aged 14-15.
Pupils who reported checking their phones more frequently were also more likely to do worse in Italian and mathematics tests.
The SMC asked NZ experts to comment.
Associate Professor Cara Swit, Faculty of Health, University of Canterbury, comments:
“This study adds important evidence to concerns about young people’s social media use. It is stronger than many cross-sectional studies because it follows students over time and compares changes in academic performance in Italian, Mathematics and English. However, its main exposure measure is the age at which students first opened a social media account, rather than a detailed measure of social media use itself.
“This distinction matters. The study cannot tell us precisely how often students used social media, what they did on particular platforms, or whether their use was active, passive, educational, social or harmful. “Social media” is not a single experience: messaging friends, watching short videos, accessing educational content and experiencing harassment may have very different effects. Grouping Facebook, Instagram and TikTok together risks obscuring important differences between platforms and activities.
“The findings themselves point to this complexity. Opening social media accounts younger was associated with lower Italian and Mathematics scores, but not English scores. The authors suggest that exposure to English-language through online content may provide informal learning opportunities, which complicates the common blanket narrative that social media is uniformly harmful.
“The study also found that smartphone pervasiveness such as use before sleep, on waking, during homework and at school, explained a meaningful proportion of the association, while parental supervision was linked with better academic outcomes. This suggests that constant access, interruptions, family practices and the wider device environment may matter as much as account ownership alone.
“The findings of the study support caution about early, unsupervised and highly pervasive access, but it does not establish that an under-16 ban would produce the same benefits as families voluntarily delaying access. Policy discussions should consider the whole “attention” ecology, including platform design, school device use, adult modelling, family routines, and young people’s social, creative and educational experiences.”
Conflict of interest statement: “None.”
Professor Cheryl Brown, Co-Director, Digital Education Futures Lab, University of Canterbury, comments:
“This is not the first time the use of digital technologies (in this case social media) has been attributed to poorer academic achievement. Previous research has negatively associated the OECD Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) scores with the use of digital devices within Aotearoa New Zealand and in some international contexts. By the end of 2023, UNESCO reported that globally 60 education systems (or 30%) had bans on smartphone use in schools in their laws or policies. Australia launched the world’s first ban on teenagers using social media and governments around the world (e.g. UK and France) have signalled their intent to follow suit.
“Clearly the digital world is introducing unprecedented challenges. However all this hype and broad sweeping vilification of technology misrepresents the complexity of situation. As renowned Australian Prof Neil Selwyn notes, we need to look beyond the technology to the contextual and social factors that surround these issues. For example whilst this study shows negative impact of early social media use on Italian students mathematics scores, the contextual factor of less parental supervision of their social media use was noted as an aside. Likewise, PISA also notes other factors that impact negatively on student achievement such as teacher shortages, and sector pressures like the time and capacity.
“As the Growing up in New Zealand research notes – what’s important in shaping digital behaviour is guidance on content and timing of screen time.
“We need to move away from an either/or conversations, and making youth accountable for the problems of technology and rather explore how we regulate technological environments and better prepare youth to balance their digital lives in the face of uncertain futures.”
Conflict of interest statement: No declaration received.
Professor Kirsty Ross, School of Psychology, Massey University, comments:
“This study makes an important contribution to the ongoing discussion about young people’s use of social media. Their findings suggest that earlier access to social media is associated with poorer academic performance. While a growing body of research has examined the relationship between social media use and psychological wellbeing, far less attention has been paid to educational outcomes, making this study a valuable addition to the evidence base. It is important, however, to interpret these findings carefully, as this is an observational study. This particularly important as countries, including New Zealand, continue to debate age restrictions and social media bans.
“Interestingly, doctoral research conducted recently at Massey University found that young people themselves (between 16-18 years old) were highly aware of both the benefits and the risks of social media. Many of the participants argued that younger adolescents and children would benefit from greater protections and consistently highlighted the important role parents play in helping children navigate online environments. Similarly, the Italian study finds that young people who accessed social media at an earlier age were less likely to have experienced parental monitoring of their online activities, while greater parental involvement was associated with better developmental outcomes. Rather than suggesting parents should closely police every online interaction, these findings reinforce the value of ongoing conversations, guidance and shared engagement around digital life.
“Perhaps the most important implication of the study is that the impact of social media may be less about the content children are exposed to and more about what social media replaces. Time spent online inevitably displaces other activities that support healthy development, including sleep, physical activity, face-to-face social interaction, play, reading and learning. The opportunity cost of screen time is something that I would suggest we need to consider and focus on.
“That said, the solution is unlikely to be simply reducing screen use. For some young people—particularly those who are socially isolated or have limited opportunities for extracurricular activities—the online world provides important opportunities for connection, belonging and learning. The challenge is therefore not whether young people should use social media, but how they use it. When online engagement is intentional, balanced with other activities, and supported by interested, engaged adults, it is likely to have very different consequences than when it becomes the default way young people spend their time.”
Conflict of interest statement: “I don’t have any conflicts to declare.“
Jack Webster, Education Researcher & Professional Teaching Fellow, The University of Auckland, comments:
One thing that stood out from the study was that it, in not addressing what impact social media was having, it somewhat conflates smartphone use and social media. This could be problematic given smartphone pervasiveness — and the sense of always being connected — isn’t always determined by social media access and content. Bans on social media in other countries still permit the use of communication platforms (e.g. WhatsApp, Signal) which could still have an impact on young adult attention spans and development. This isn’t to say a ban should or shouldn’t go further — it’s just indicating that we need to explore both the impact smartphone/social media access is having and the reasons why they are having that impact.
The paper adds learning outcomes into the debate around social media. The use of assessment scores as data suggests that social media is impacting cognitive development (reasons for which are not explored).
A ban alone doesn’t account for how teenagers are prepared to live in a world with social media. Education should account for the realities of the world — a world with digital technologies and social media in them. This isn’t to say a ban prevents engaging with these realities — it can in fact be a teaching point where the reasons for a ban are discussed with students so they could become more aware of the implications of using social media on their learning, relations with others and their views of the world. What remains fundamental, whether a ban comes in or not, is that education remains grounded in the realities of young adults’ current and future lives.
There are some other points — notably that this is quite a small cohort, in a different context to New Zealand, and the cohort was also at a key development age during COVID.
Conflict of interest statement: “I have no conflict of interest to declare.”
Expert comments from the UK Science Media Centre:
Dr Poppy Gibson, Lecturer in Education studies (Primary), The Open University, said:
“In this longitudinal study of 5,227 Italian students, these authors found that opening social media accounts earlier in adolescence was associated with lower Italian and mathematics test scores later in school, equivalent to roughly six months of learning. While observational, the findings suggest excessive social media use, distraction and reduced parental supervision may contribute to poorer academic outcomes. With a reasonable sample size (5227 participants), this paper offers a reflection on how social media use may affect academic success in standardised tests. As an educator, however, I argue that standardised tests in their very design are a flawed way to measure ‘success’, and perhaps what sits behind the data of poorer scores is, as the authors mention, the lack of parental supervision. Less parental supervision of a child or young person’s social media use may in theory suggest less parental support with wider academic study and learning in the home environment. The implication for the real world is that young people may find it harder to engage in offline activities, but we must not assume that learning does not happen in the online spaces on social media platforms. In fact, participation in social media networks may lead to learning as well as confidence building, relational communities in finding others with whom the young person relates, and inspiration for their own behaviours and interests. Standardised tests, in a change landscape of human living, may become less important over the valuable skill development and human qualities that individuals may need to problem solve, create and dream when Artificial Intelligence can absorb many of the global tasks that previously needed specific tick box ‘knowledge’.
“So perhaps this study is bigger than test scores; this paper offers a timely provocation of how phones are impacting young people; it is an interesting and thoughtful study that encourages both educators and parents and carers to think about the future impact phone use may have on behaviours and wider success.”
Expert comments from the Science Media Centre Ireland:
Dr Dean McDonnell, Lecturer of Psychology, South East Technological University, said:
“This is one of those studies that when you stumble upon it, you adjust your seat. It uses longitudinal standardised data and matching and difference-in-differences models that are far stronger than our usual cross-sectional methodologies. Although the design makes it difficult to eliminate all unmeasured differences between groups, it highlights that earlier social media adoption is followed by lower scores in two of the three subjects: Italian and mathematics.
“A broader question is what these tests capture. I am reminded of research on the Flynn effect, showing how changing environments can alter the ways people interpret and categorise information. An earlier generation might connect two animals behaviourally (one chases the other), whereas a contemporary response may classify both abstractly (as mammals). Both answers are correct and demonstrate understanding, but assessments will generally reward particular forms of reasoning.
“The same caution applies here. Findings that indicate lower standardised scores are eye-catching and meaningful, but should not automatically be translated into a general loss of intelligence or learning. It can be possible for contemporary digital environments to cultivate some competencies while displacing practice in others. For example, the absence of an effect for English is especially resonant here, as exposure to English-language material online may have offset some disadvantages of pervasive use. For me, I would think that this suggests how outcomes may depend on the interaction between platform design, content, attention, and displaced activities, rather than simply whether a child has a social media account.”
Dr Eoin Whelan, Professor in Business Analytics and Society at the University of Galway, said:
“While the press release for this paper suggests that earlier social media use may be harmful, that should be interpreted with an element of caution. Firstly, the study does find that earlier access to social media is associated with lower test scores, so what is important to understand is why this negative association exists.The researchers did investigate this and found that the child’s’ inability to control their use of their smartphone, and lack of parental involvement in managing online activity, were the main reasons why this pattern exists. This finding would support calls for particular features of social media platforms, such as auto-play and infinite scroll, to be modified and subject to appropriate safeguards. Second, the study found no link between exposure to social media and well-being for the average child. But of course there is no such thing as an average child. What this means in reality is that some benefit from social media, for others it is largely benign, but some children do have negative experiences online. So we should focus on who, why, and when children experience detrimental consequences when using digital technology.”
Dr Jason Power, Associate Professor, School of Education, University of Limerick, said:
“Researching the impact of specific technologies on people can be very challenging. There are so many factors that impact each of us every day that it can be exceedingly difficult to isolate the signal from the noise. The authors of this study have done an admirable job of navigating the many challenges and have provided a valuable insight into the impact of social media use on specific learning outcomes.
“The study found that children who created social media accounts in 6th or 7th grade (around ages 11–12) experienced significant drops in math and language scores compared to peers who waited until 9th grade (age 14). By 10th grade, early adopters lost the equivalent of six months of math learning, faced higher risks of repeating a grade, and reported lower academic confidence. Distraction during homework, bedtime, and school hours was the primary driver of this decline.
“However, important limitations must be considered. Account creation dates relied on student memory years after the event. Additionally, the study excluded high school dropouts and vocational students, groups with higher digital media use and lower test scores, meaning the findings likely understate overall harm. Finally, results reflect students in Northern Italy during a specific period dominated by smartphone video apps, so findings may vary across different cultures or technologies.”
Expert comments from the Science Media Centre Spain:
María Paz Prendes Espinosa, Professor of Educational Technology, University of Murcia, said:
“I believe the press release summarises the main findings of the study well, but they must be interpreted within the context of this study and should not be generalised or taken as definitive. On this subject, there are many studies, and they do not all agree; therefore, as the authors themselves acknowledge, the results must be analysed with caution.
“It is a quantitative study with a very large sample (more than 5,000 students from Lombardy, Italy), which is its main strength. However, a retrospective questionnaire was used. This means that information about the past was gathered from the respondents – in this case, adolescents – with all the biases that this may entail, as the results are influenced by memory. It is striking that the questionnaire was developed specifically for this study (ad hoc), and no explanation is given as to how it was validated, nor are any data provided on this (validity and reliability statistics) – aspects that are fundamental to any rigorous social science research. Therefore, whilst the robustness of the data is supported by the size of the sample (which the authors claim is representative), the study design itself may introduce factors that introduce bias into the results and undermine their validity. Furthermore, it is curious that only three subjects were studied (it is unclear why these three and not others) and that the study shows social media use influences only two of them (Italian and mathematics), but not the third (English).
“Social media has attracted interest ever since it entered our lives and has been the subject of numerous studies, but it has suddenly become the focus of the political debate on teenagers and their use of digital technologies. This study, whilst undoubtedly interesting, overlooks many aspects that cannot be ignored when analysing the consequences of social media, as the exclusive causal link between social media use and its impact on academic performance is difficult to accept. Does the family context not play a role? What about the social context? Do peer groups not have an influence? What about the adolescents’ personality traits? Does socio-economic status not play a part? And there are many other factors that could be added. In such a complex issue, which must not be oversimplified, there is also research demonstrating the usefulness of social media in promoting communication, social
“The main limitation may stem from the questionnaire, which collects data on the respondents’ self-perceptions of their past. Can a teenager accurately recall exactly how much time they spent on their mobile and for what purposes when they were at primary school? Will they tell us this in a precise and reliable manner? In this type of research, it is useful to combine data collection with other qualitative techniques within a mixed-methods research design, so that the information can be triangulated. Relying exclusively on a questionnaire to collect data is very limited, particularly when a teenager is required to recall and describe what they did when they were a child.
“The main implication is that social media form part of our reality from an early age, and this study confirms this. Given this situation, banning the use of technology will not solve the problems associated with it. On the contrary, we must promote an education tailored to the real-world context in which we live; we must train and educate people to know how to manage the use of technology. In a digitalised society and in the age of artificial intelligence, we must not only be concerned about social media, but about technology in general. And this concern must lead us to strengthen our education system so that it can meet this need for training in digital literacy, recognising that digital literacy goes far beyond technical knowledge, as it involves the responsible, safe, critical and ethical use of technology and, by extension, of social media. If we want to protect our teenagers from the potential risks of technology, we must prepare them to live in a society shaped by technology.”
Lucas Gortázar, a researcher specializing in educational policies and reforms and director of the Education Department of the EsadeEcPol Center for Economic Policies, said:
“The press release is clear about the study and its limitations.
It is the first longitudinal, quasi-experimental study to address the relationship between social media use and learning outcomes on a global scale. I believe that is the major contribution of this paper. The conclusions are well-supported and, whilst further studies are needed, the evidence is consistent in showing that the earlier a social media account is opened, the greater the effect. That said, it is a pity that they have not reported results by gender or socio-economic status.
“This is the first contribution of its kind to this body of literature; clearly more is needed, but it is a major finding that provides further evidence on a fundamental question, one of which public authorities should be more aware.
“All the factors that could be taken into account have been considered. It is possible that they could carry out some additional robustness tests, but I think that, generally speaking, it is sound.
“It is a solid finding that points to the need to delay the age at which teenagers start using social media to, at the earliest, 15 or 16 years of age.”