A new study suggests there may be a so-called “Goldilocks” time frame in which kids may face less risk when they use social media.
The time frame doesn’t cut out social media use completely but suggests there is an amount of time that is “just right” for kids to use it, a reference to the phrase Goldilocks uses in the fairy tale of the same name.
The study from Australia, published Monday in the journal JAMA Pediatrics, suggests there may be a certain amount of time that can benefit kids and their mental health, and estimates that it is less than two hours a day, on average.
The study found that kids who use too much social media and those who didn’t use any social media were all more likely to experience a lower level of well-being. Heavy social media use in kids was associated with distress, whereas avoiding social media completely may lead to missed social connections with friends, another stress factor for kids.
For girls in grades 4 through 6, their well-being tended to be highest with no social media use. Girls in grades 7 through 12, meanwhile, benefited from moderate use, showing an improvement in well-being when they did use some social media. Girls across age groups who used social media heavily, however, showed negative well-being markers.
For boys in grades 4 through 6, there was not much of a difference in well-being between those who used social media moderately and those who did not use it at all. However, boys in grades 7 through 12 who didn’t use social media at all showed signs of a decline in well-being.