Ep. 246: Kids and Phones

In this episode of his own long-running podcast, Cal Newport walks through the research history behind the question of whether smartphones are harmful for children — how early researcher concerns emerged, the studies that followed, published critiques of those studies, and where the evidence stood as of 2023. He treats the question as genuinely contested rather than settled, presenting competing findings before offering his own practical guidance for parents weighing device access for their kids. The episode does not claim smartphones cause any specific mental health diagnosis; it summarizes an evolving, sometimes-disputed body of research and translates it into decision-making advice. TechKids Foundation cites this episode as a documented public analysis, by a widely read technology critic, of the same research landscape — including competing findings — that the library's other evidence entries draw from.

REPORT A PROBLEM WITH THIS ENTRY