{"id":54057,"date":"2026-08-31T14:24:08","date_gmt":"2026-08-31T08:39:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/nepalsamaj.com\/en\/?p=54057"},"modified":"2026-08-31T14:25:56","modified_gmt":"2026-08-31T08:40:56","slug":"delaying-childrens-first-use-of-social-media-may-protect-mental-health-study","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/nepalsamaj.com\/en\/delaying-childrens-first-use-of-social-media-may-protect-mental-health-study\/","title":{"rendered":"Delaying children&#8217;s first use of social media may protect mental health: study"},"content":{"rendered":"<div style=\"margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px;\" class=\"sharethis-inline-share-buttons\" ><\/div><p>Delaying the age at which children first use social media may help protect adolescent mental health, new research from Australia&#8217;s University of New South Wales (UNSW) suggests.<\/p>\n<p>The study found that those who began using social media at a younger age reported more symptoms of anxiety and depression. Simply having a social media account showed a weaker relationship with those symptoms, according to a UNSW statement released Monday.<\/p>\n<p>The study, conducted among Australian adolescents aged 10 to 15 and one of their parents in the six weeks before Australia&#8217;s social media ban for under-16s took effect in December 2025, found 70 percent of participants had used social media, while about half already had a social media account. The average age at which they first started using social media was 11.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;What surprised us was that the age children first started using social media appeared to matter more for their mental health than simply whether they had an account,&#8221; said UNSW Associate Professor Susanne Schweizer, the study&#8217;s chief investigator.<\/p>\n<p>The study showed that only a quarter of 10-to-15-year-olds said they planned to stop using social media after the ban, while 34 percent intended to use it without an account and 35 percent intended to find a way around the restrictions to continue using their accounts, rather than simply waiting until they turn 16.<\/p>\n<p>The findings suggest that delaying children&#8217;s first exposure may be a promising policy, particularly if combined with education on healthy digital habits.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Delaying the age at which children first use social media may help protect adolescent mental health, new research from Australia&#8217;s University of New South Wales (UNSW) suggests. The study found that those who began using social media at a younger age reported more symptoms of anxiety and depression. Simply having a social media account showed [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":18606,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[15],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-54057","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-world"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/nepalsamaj.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/54057"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/nepalsamaj.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/nepalsamaj.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nepalsamaj.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nepalsamaj.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=54057"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/nepalsamaj.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/54057\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":54058,"href":"https:\/\/nepalsamaj.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/54057\/revisions\/54058"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nepalsamaj.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/18606"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/nepalsamaj.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=54057"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nepalsamaj.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=54057"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nepalsamaj.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=54057"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}