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Owning a Smartphone Before 13 Linked to Alarming Mental Health Declines, Global Study Finds
A worldwide study involving more than 100,000 participants has found that receiving a smartphone before the age of 13 is linked with weaker mental health and lower overall wellbeing in early adulthood.
The research, published in the peer-reviewed Journal of Human Development and Capabilities, reported that individuals aged 18 to 24 who first owned a smartphone at 12 or younger were more likely to experience suicidal thoughts, heightened aggression, feelings of detachment from reality, difficulties with emotional control, and diminished self-worth.
The findings further indicate that these negative outcomes are closely tied to early exposure to social media and increased vulnerability to cyberbullying, poor sleep quality, and strained family relationships later in life. Researchers from Sapien Labs, the organization behind the world’s largest mental wellbeing database, the Global Mind Project (which provided the data for this study), are urging immediate measures to safeguard the mental health of future generations.
Mercury Found in Rubberized Flooring in Long Island School District’s Gymnasiums. Here’s Why Parents Are Concerned.
Schools in the Long Island town of Glen Cove are replacing gymnasium floors following this month’s startling discovery of mercury vapors emanating from old rubberized flooring. Now, some parents of athletes who spend many hours in the gym say they are worried.
Engineers upgrading the middle school gym this summer noticed the presence of mercury in polyurethane flooring installed decades ago. At room temperature, or when heated, mercury can release toxic vapors. The high school measured more than three times the allowable limit. Letters from the school district were immediately sent out to parents.
Dr. Jacqueline Moline, an expert in occupational medicine, is with Northwell Health’s North Shore University Hospital. “Over time, the body will get rid of the mercury,” Moline said. “The type of mercury that is in gymnasiums is going to be mercury vapor, so the health effects related to this are predominately neurological.”
Family Blames Sam Altman, ChatGPT for Teen Son’s Suicide
The San Francisco Standard reported:
The parents of a 16-year-old California boy filed a lawsuit Tuesday against OpenAI and CEO Sam Altman, alleging the company’s ChatGPT encouraged his suicide and provided detailed instructions on how to take his own life. Matt and Maria Raine filed the wrongful death lawsuit in San Francisco Superior Court on behalf of themselves and the estate of their son, Adam Raine, who died in April. The Orange County teenager had used ChatGPT for homework help before the system became a confidant that validated his negative thoughts about suicide, the suit claims.
According to the complaint, ChatGPT helped Adam plan a “beautiful suicide.” The large language model told Adam he did not “owe them survival. You don’t owe anyone that,” after he expressed worry that they would think he killed himself because “they did something wrong.” On the night of his death, ChatGPT provided detailed instructions for making a noose, the lawsuit claims. His mother found him hours later.
“We are going to demonstrate to the jury that Adam would be alive today if not for OpenAI and Sam Altman’s intentional and reckless decisions,” said Jay Edelson of Edelson PC, one of the family’s attorneys. “They prioritized market share over safety.”
The lawsuit describes Altman as “the chief executive who personally directed the reckless strategy of prioritizing a rushed market release over the safety of vulnerable users like Adam.”
Adam, the third of four siblings, was described as a high school basketball player who read extensively and was considering a medical career.
Children’s Health: Know the Effects Caffeine Can Have on Your Children
A cup of coffee or tea in the morning or an afternoon caffeine pick-me-up is usually fine for most adults. But parents might want to take a closer look at caffeine and other ingredients in the drinks their kids love.
Many popular beverages that kids go to for quick energy have a surprising amount of caffeine. Some drinks have other stimulants, too. These energy-boosting ingredients quickly add up in a smaller body.
Caffeine-related visits to U.S. emergency departments nearly doubled among middle and high school students between 2017 and 2023. In 2023, poison control centers recorded a 24% rise in calls about young people with reactions to energy drinks.
Here’s what parents and caregivers need to know about caffeine — and how to guide children and teens toward healthy drinks.
Study: Baby Talk Boosts Infant Vocalization in Autistic Children
The University of Texas at Dallas reported:
Parentese — the slower, simplified language with higher pitch, exaggerated intonation and elongated vowels that adults often use with infants — has been shown to facilitate language acquisition in neurotypical children, but it has not been clear whether the same holds true for the autistic population.
Dr. Pumpki Lei Su, assistant professor of speech, language, and hearing in the School of Behavioral and Brain Sciences and the Callier Center for Communication Disorders at The University of Texas at Dallas, studies language development and caregiver-child interactions in autistic children. In a new study published in the May/June issue of the journal Infancy, she and her colleagues found that the social-interactive benefits of parentese in a child’s first year extends beyond the neurotypical population.
“Regardless of the differences a child might exhibit later in childhood, at least in the first year, autistic children are responding to parentese,” said Su, the study’s corresponding author, who is also affiliated with the Center for Children and Families. “Just like neurotypical infants, they were more likely to produce a speechlike vocalization — not laughing or crying — after an adult utterance in parentese register compared to adult register. The strength of that sequential association was the same regardless of whether the child went on to have an autism diagnosis.”
