The earlier that adolescents are given smartphones, the more likely they are to develop depression, gain weight and not get enough sleep, researchers from the Children's Hospital of Philadelphia and Penn Medicine found.

About 95% of U.S. teens 13 to 17 either own or have regular access to smartphones, and nearly 60% of children 11 to 12 have them, the Pew Research Center found in a recent survey . The percentage of teens who say they use the internet "almost constantly" nearly doubled from 24% in 2014-15 to 46% by 2023.

Researchers at CHOP and Penn Medicine sought to understand how kids' health changes when they get smartphones and whether their age influences the effects of using the devices. They analyzed data from more than 10,000 teens in the U.S. between 2018 and 2022, adjusting

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