Children who start using social media at a young age appear to struggle more at school than those who open social media accounts only once they are older, a new study has found.
The study was published in Nature Human Behaviour and analysed more than 5,000 pupils from northern Italy aged 7 to 16.
The paper was built on a combination of data from a questionnaire on digital media habits with longitudinal standardised exam scores collected in grades 2, 5, 8 and 10 in Italian, mathematics and English.
Specifically, when tested in grade 8 (usually the age range from 13 to 14), students who joined social media at 11 or 12 did worse than those who waited longer to get on social media in both Italian and maths.
And when tested in grade 10 (ages 15-16), the impact not only persisted but widened, particularly in mathematics and for those exposed to social media before 13.
