In northern Italy, a recent study put the spotlight on the impact of social media on the academic performance of adolescents. According to the research, published in Nature Human Behaviour, opening a personal account before the age of 14—the legal minimum age in the European country for autonomous access to these platforms—was associated with a decline in academic performance, compared to those who wait until reaching that age.
The study, led by professors and sociologists Marco Gui and Giovanni Abbiati from the University of Milano-Bicocca and the University of Brescia, and with the participation of the Centro Studi Socialis, longitudinally analyzed 5,227 students born in 2007 and 2008, who studied in the provinces of Brescia, Cremona, Mantua, Milan, and Monza and Brianza, in the Lombardy region, during the 2023-2024 academic cycle.
The analysis detected that opening an account between the ages of 11 and 13 reduces results in language and mathematics, with a loss equivalent to half a school year.
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How the study was conducted
The study followed the academic progress of these young people from second to tenth grade, a period spanning ages between 7 and 16 years old.
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In the sixth grade, early opening of social media accounts was linked to a 0.27 standard deviation drop in mathematics and 0.22 in Italian language.
The researchers created a database that integrated retrospective surveys on participants’ digital habits and the results of standardized INVALSI tests in Italian language, mathematics, and English.
One of the starting points of the analysis was to divide the students according to the time they opened their first personal social media account. In this way, two large groups were defined: those who did so in sixth, seventh, or eighth grade—the so-called early users—and those who waited until ninth grade or later, coinciding with the minimum legal age for autonomous access in Italy, set at 14 years old.
The research design excluded those who opened their first account in elementary school, due to not having a sufficient basis for longitudinal analysis, as well as those who stated they started on social media before having their own cell phone, given that the objective was to measure the combined effect of personal phone ownership and entry into digital platforms.
The study indicated that the loss from opening a social media account in 6th grade is equivalent to about 30% of the largest educational social gap observed in Italy.
The technological reality of Italian adolescents was reflected in the data: 98% of students had a cell phone by the end of middle school, and nearly half—47%—received their first internet-enabled phone in the sixth grade.
Access to social media also came early: 11.2% opened a profile in elementary school, 29.5% in sixth grade, 25% in seventh, and 18% in eighth. Only 16.3% waited until ninth grade, even though legislation establishes that age as the legal threshold.
The most unexpected finding: magnitude and persistence of the gap
The results showed that those who opened their first personal account before the age of 14 lost the equivalent of half a school year in comprehension of language (Italian) and mathematics subjects.
In figures, the team documented that those who opened an account in sixth grade showed a difference of up to 0.27 standard deviations less in mathematics and 0.22 less in language compared to those who waited until ninth grade or later.
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By eighth grade, students who accessed social media in sixth grade showed a drop of -0.18 in math and -0.22 in Italian. Those who started in seventh also showed a decline, although smaller: -0.10 and -0.14, respectively.
Researchers linked part of the negative impact to more intrusive smartphone use before sleep, upon waking, and during school tasks.
For those who opened their first account in eighth grade, the negative impact was weaker and less consistent. In tenth grade, regardless of the opening time, a difference of -0.11 persisted in both fields for this group.
The pattern, according to the authors, was cumulative: the earlier access began, the greater the subsequent loss in academic performance.
In that sense, Giovanni Abbiati indicated that “the loss induced by opening a social media account in the sixth grade represents about 30% of the largest educational social gap observed in Italy.”
Factors behind the fall and other associated variables
The work also addressed the mechanisms behind this phenomenon. The most intrusive use of the cell phone at key moments—before sleeping, upon waking, and during school tasks—appeared as a central factor.
To measure it, a validated scale of “smartphone pervasiveness” was used, that is, continuous, massive, and dominant use in all aspects of daily life, and not self-reported screen time, which is considered unreliable.
An increase of one standard deviation on that scale was associated with a drop of 0.14 in mathematics and 0.11 in Italian language in tenth grade. This indicator explained between 33% and 47% of the effect in mathematics and between 15% and 34% in Italian, which is equivalent to one-third of the total negative impact. In other words, a significant part of the decline in school performance is due to how invasive the phone is during key moments of the day.
The study also examined other school variables. Students who opened accounts in the sixth or seventh grade showed a higher probability of repeating a grade in upper secondary school, and the three groups of early users were less likely to achieve an excellent final grade at the end of lower secondary school, defined as 8/10 or higher. Furthermore, they reported lower academic self-efficacy, although the choice of the type of upper secondary school seemed barely influenced by early initiation into social media.
The work suggests that delaying account opening until age 14 and strengthening digital literacy can help protect learning in families and schools.
“Our findings support the idea that delayed access can be beneficial. Early and cumulative exposure to social media through smartphones has a measurable and persistent impact on learning,” the authors noted.
On the other hand, the study did not find a clear relationship between the emotional well-being of the children and their school performance, and parental control had a very limited effect as protection. No negative impact on English learning was observed either: the researchers associated this with the fact that children are exposed to the language when they use social media. Furthermore, in reading and listening comprehension tests, there were no significant differences between those who started using social media earlier and those who did so later.
Differences from previous research and limitations
Unlike most previous studies—which focus on the amount of usage or the impact on psychological well-being—this research provides causal evidence on the effects of the timing of social media initiation. According to the authors, “the effects found, close to half a standard deviation, exceed those of previous studies on early mobile phone ownership.”
Researchers linked part of the negative impact to more intrusive smartphone use before sleep, upon waking, and during schoolwork.
The authors of the study warn that the results must be interpreted within the specific social, educational, and technological context of northern Italy and Western Europe, in years dominated by platforms such as TikTok and Instagram and by access almost entirely mediated by mobile phones.
The study compared groups of students using methods that help reduce the differences between them. Factors such as the educational level of the families and whether the students lived with both parents were taken into account, because those who started using social media earlier generally came from households with less education and fewer families with both parents present. Furthermore, these students already had lower grades before participating.
Among the limitations of the analysis—the authors indicate—are the impossibility of controlling for all biases inherent in a non-experimental approach, the lack of data on school dropout, and the exclusion of young people outside the educational system, who could experience more pronounced effects.
The analysis concludes that delaying the opening of social media accounts until the age of 14 could protect academic performance by reducing cumulative exposure during particularly sensitive ages.
Italian and European policies establish that minimum age, although compliance is scarce. The authors underline the need to strengthen digital literacy for parents and students, along with school programs that promote informed decisions regarding the use of social networks and devices.
Finally, the research team suggests that future research should explore whether this pattern repeats in other countries and in different social or emotional dimensions, as well as analyze the effect of specific digital usage modalities on student development.
