"This study adds important evidence to concerns about young people’s social media use. It is stronger than many cross-sectional studies because it follows students over time and compares changes in academic performance in Italian, Mathematics and English. However, its main exposure measure is the age at which students first opened a social media account, rather than a detailed measure of social media use itself.

"This distinction matters. The study cannot tell us precisely how often students used social media, what they did on particular platforms, or whether their use was active, passive, educational, social or harmful. “Social media” is not a single experience: messaging friends, watching short videos, accessing educational content and experiencing harassment may have very different effects. Grouping Facebook, Instagram and TikTok together risks obscuring important differences between platforms and activities.

"The findings themselves point to this complexity. Opening social media accounts younger was associated with lower Italian and Mathematics scores, but not English scores. The authors suggest that exposure to English-language through online content may provide informal learning opportunities, which complicates the common blanket narrative that social media is uniformly harmful.

"The study also found that smartphone pervasiveness such as use before sleep, on waking, during homework and at school, explained a meaningful proportion of the association, while parental supervision was linked with better academic outcomes. This suggests that constant access, interruptions, family practices and the wider device environment may matter as much as account ownership alone.

"The findings of the study support caution about early, unsupervised and highly pervasive access, but it does not establish that an under-16 ban would produce the same benefits as families voluntarily delaying access. Policy discussions should consider the whole "attention" ecology, including platform design, school device use, adult modelling, family routines, and young people’s social, creative and educational experiences."

"This is not the first time the use of digital technologies (in this case social media) has been attributed to poorer academic achievement. Previous research has negatively associated the OECD Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) scores with the use of digital devices within Aotearoa New Zealand and in some international contexts. By the end of 2023, UNESCO reported that globally 60 education systems (or 30%) had bans on smartphone use in schools in their laws or policies. Australia launched the world's first ban on teenagers using social media and governments around the world (e.g. UK and France) have signalled their intent to follow suit.

"Clearly the digital world is introducing unprecedented challenges. However all this hype and broad sweeping vilification of technology misrepresents the complexity of situation. As renowned Australian Prof Neil Selwyn notes, we need to look beyond the technology to the contextual and social factors that surround these issues. For example whilst this study shows negative impact of early social media use on Italian students mathematics scores, the contextual factor of less parental supervision of their social media use was noted as an aside. Likewise, PISA also notes other factors that impact negatively on student achievement such as teacher shortages, and sector pressures like the time and capacity.

"As the Growing up in New Zealand research notes - what’s important in shaping digital behaviour is guidance on content and timing of screen time.

"We need to move away from an either/or conversations, and making youth accountable for the problems of technology and rather explore how we regulate technological environments and better prepare youth to balance their digital lives in the face of uncertain futures."

"This study makes an important contribution to the ongoing discussion about young people's use of social media. Their findings suggest that earlier access to social media is associated with poorer academic performance. While a growing body of research has examined the relationship between social media use and psychological wellbeing, far less attention has been paid to educational outcomes, making this study a valuable addition to the evidence base. It is important, however, to interpret these findings carefully, as this is an observational study. This particularly important as countries, including New Zealand, continue to debate age restrictions and social media bans.

"Interestingly, doctoral research conducted recently at Massey University found that young people themselves (between 16-18 years old) were highly aware of both the benefits and the risks of social media. Many of the participants argued that younger adolescents and children would benefit from greater protections and consistently highlighted the important role parents play in helping children navigate online environments. Similarly, the Italian study finds that young people who accessed social media at an earlier age were less likely to have experienced parental monitoring of their online activities, while greater parental involvement was associated with better developmental outcomes. Rather than suggesting parents should closely police every online interaction, these findings reinforce the value of ongoing conversations, guidance and shared engagement around digital life.

"Perhaps the most important implication of the study is that the impact of social media may be less about the content children are exposed to and more about what social media replaces. Time spent online inevitably displaces other activities that support healthy development, including sleep, physical activity, face-to-face social interaction, play, reading and learning. The opportunity cost of screen time is something that I would suggest we need to consider and focus on.

"That said, the solution is unlikely to be simply reducing screen use. For some young people—particularly those who are socially isolated or have limited opportunities for extracurricular activities—the online world provides important opportunities for connection, belonging and learning. The challenge is therefore not whether young people should use social media, but how they use it. When online engagement is intentional, balanced with other activities, and supported by interested, engaged adults, it is likely to have very different consequences than when it becomes the default way young people spend their time."

"One thing that stood out from the study was that it, in not addressing what impact social media was having, it somewhat conflates smartphone use and social media. This could be problematic given smartphone pervasiveness — and the sense of always being connected — isn't always determined by social media access and content. Bans on social media in other countries still permit the use of communication platforms (e.g. WhatsApp, Signal) which could still have an impact on young adult attention spans and development. This isn't to say a ban should or shouldn't go further — it's just indicating that we need to explore both the impact smartphone/social media access is having and the reasons why they are having that impact.

"The paper adds learning outcomes into the debate around social media. The use of assessment scores as data suggests that social media is impacting cognitive development (reasons for which are not explored).

"A ban alone doesn't account for how teenagers are prepared to live in a world with social media. Education should account for the realities of the world — a world with digital technologies and social media in them. This isn't to say a ban prevents engaging with these realities — it can in fact be a teaching point where the reasons for a ban are discussed with students so they could become more aware of the implications of using social media on their learning, relations with others and their views of the world. What remains fundamental, whether a ban comes in or not, is that education remains grounded in the realities of young adults' current and future lives.

"There are some other points — notably that this is quite a small cohort, in a different context to New Zealand, and the cohort was also at a key development age during COVID."

"It is not surprising to hear that, in an Italian study, early and persistent use of social media has been found to be associated with negative outcomes in language and literacy performance.

"The negative effects of early access to social media and pervasive use of smartphones found in this study are consistent with findings from reading studies, where digital reading shows persistent negative effects compared with the positive effects of print-based reading for primary-aged children and younger adolescents.

"In studies that compare print and digital reading, reading on digital devices is associated with poorer understanding. Children and younger adolescents tend to overestimate what they understand when they read digital texts. Reading on digital devices fragments their attention, making it harder for them to concentrate. While 12- to 13-year-olds are vulnerable to poorer mental health from social media use, reading for pleasure is associated with better health and wellbeing on many indicators.

"International comparative studies like PIRLS and PISA show that in Aotearoa New Zealand we are following international declines in how much young people read and how much they enjoy it. Evidence from studies on the positive effects of long-form, higher-level, volitional, and recreational reading and the negative consequences of digital reading are influencing public debate and policy in some European nations. Slovenia’s Ljubljana Reading Manifesto calls on policymakers to prioritise higher-level, long-form reading at all phases of education. Norway has removed mobile phones from classrooms. In England, the government has launched an inquiry into reading for pleasure as a way to turn around declines in reading.

"While reading has recently been a focus in Aotearoa New Zealand education policy, it tends to be on early reading skills rather than how to support advanced and sustained reading."