This Is The Worst Type of Screen Time for Your Kid’s Attention Span

Children who spent time on social media developed symptoms consistent with ADHD, more so than their peers whose screen time was centered around TV or video games.

A new study followed 8,324 children, whose digital media consumption was split between TV and YouTube, video games, and social media, for four years. According to the prepublication research published in Pediatrics Open Science, “Children with above-average social media use showed a greater increase in inattention symptoms compared to others. This interaction was specific to social media and not observed for either watching television/videos or playing video games.”

The average time spent on special media was 30 minutes a day for 9-year-olds, and it steadily increased until it reached 2.5 hours for 13-year-olds — despite guidelines from tech companies that are intended to keep children off the platforms until they turn 13. “This early and increasing social media use underscores the need for stricter age verification and clearer guidelines for tech companies,” the study authors wrote. “Policymakers should reinforce regulations to limit access for younger children and ensure platforms are age appropriate to support healthy development.”

The focus, the authors wrote, needs to be on social media: “Our study suggests that it is specifically social media that affects children’s ability to concentrate,” Torkel Klingberg, professor of cognitive neuroscience at the Karolinska Institutet Department of Neuroscience and one of the authors, said in a release from the Swedish institute. “Social media entails constant distractions in the form of messages and notifications, and the mere thought of whether a message has arrived can act as a mental distraction. This affects the ability to stay focused and could explain the association.”

Surprisingly, study authors found that video games or TV time “was associated with a decrease in hyperactivity-impulsivity symptoms over time.”

As they wrote, “[Social media use] can be contrasted with playing video games, which requires sustained attention, and both experimental and longitudinal studies have been associated with improvements in cognitive function.” 

The researchers said their next step is to follow the children after age 14 to see if the increase in ADHD-related symptoms continues. Short for Attention Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder, ADHD can be marked by either struggles with attention, or increased hyperactivity and impulsivity, or both.

Never miss a story — sign up for PEOPLE’s free daily newsletter to stay up-to-date on the best of what PEOPLE has to offer, from celebrity news to compelling human interest stories.

As Klingberg explained, “Greater consumption of social media might explain part of the increase we’re seeing in ADHD diagnoses, even if ADHD is also associated with hyperactivity, which didn’t increase in our study.”

The study’s first author, Samson Nivins, a postdoctoral researcher at the Karolinska Institutet Department of Women’s and Children’s Health, said in the release, “We hope that our findings will help parents and policymakers make well-informed decisions on healthy digital consumption that support children’s cognitive development.”