• What impacts does social media use and screen time have on brain development, behaviour (including engagement in other activity), attainment, and health? How does this vary for different groups (including by age) and for different types of use?
Background
Technology, including digital technology and artificial intelligence, has great potential to transform lives, but we need to develop our expertise to deploy them well, and to help learners, families and carers to use them safely and judiciously, taking account of the need for a healthy balance of “screen time” and time away from screens. (For brevity, please read all references to children as encompassing both children and young people where appropriate).
Full details can be found at: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/department-for-education-areas-of-research-interest
Next steps
Get in touch with research.engagement@education.gov.uk
Topics
Related UKRI funded projects
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How Much is Too Much? Leveraging Existing and Emerging Large-Scale Social Data to Build Robust Evidence-Based Policy for Children in the Digital Age
The amount of time British children and adolescents spend on digital technologies has more than doubled in the past decade, and debates about the possible impact of excessive screen use are prominent in the scientific an...
Funded by: ESRC
Why might this be relevant?
This project aims to generate evidence-based policy on the impacts of digital technologies on children's health and well-being, addressing the specific research questions outlined in the question.
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Harnessing digital data to study 21st-century adolescence
Almost every child in the UK is now living in both offline and online worlds. Just as they go to school every day, they also engage in online environments on a daily basis. A recent data collection by Ofcom showed that a...
Funded by: MRC
Why might this be relevant?
While this project focuses on collecting digital data to understand adolescent health, it does not directly address the specific research questions outlined in the question but provides valuable insights into online activities and their impact on health.
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SCAMP Wave 2
Mental illness commonly emerges during adolescence, but the reasons for this are not well understood. Adolescence is a period of great change in family, school, and peer relationships, use of mobile phones/social media (...
Funded by: MRC
Why might this be relevant?
This project specifically addresses the links between digital technology use and mental health in adolescents, collecting data to investigate the impact and contributing to filling the gaps in scientific knowledge outlined in the question.