Why Are Children So ANGRY, AGGRESSIVE?

'The earlier a child is given a smartphone, the worst it becomes when they are 17, 18.'
'Every year you delay in giving a smartphone to child, the outcome becomes better.'
'The behavioural changes that are very specific to smartphones are aggression and anger.'

What the Netflix series Adolescence has achieved is, it has created discussions and debates on how dangerous smartphones and social media can be for children and teenagers.

If the Netflix series has created a wave of panic and also awareness, a report released by Sapien Labs in January 2025 based on the data collected in 2023 and 2024, cements what it says with some real data.

The report is titled The Youth Mind: Rising Aggression And Anger. (external link)

Sapien Labs is founded by Tara Thiagarajan who is also its Chief Scientist. She holds a PhD in neuroscience from Stanford University.

"Today's children would not have spent even 5,000 hours interacting with people by the time they are 18," Tara Thiagarajan tells Rediff's Shobha Warrier.

After the unprecedented success of Adolescence on Netflix, there is a lot of discussion all around the world on the negative impact of mobile phones and social media on teenagers.
Your study found that mental well-being of adolescents is closely linked to mobile phones. Can you tell us a little more about the study and its findings?

We did the survey on 100,000 people who are between the ages of 18 and 35 and another 10,000 who are between the ages of 13 and 17, both in the US and India. And we have come out with two different reports.

We see that the younger a child gets a phone, the more likely the child is to have mental health challenges when it becomes an adolescent or adult.

For example, if you give a phone when children are 8 or 9 years old, 75% of them are likely to have mental health issues when they become adults.

They become aggressive and angry, and there is a sense of detachment from reality. They experience hallucinations, and they also get suicidal thoughts.

Basically, they don't seem to live in the real world. Rather, they live in an online world which creates a disconnect between the online world and the real world.

Does it appear when they are adolescents?

It starts appearing when they are adolescents.

The earlier a child is given a smartphone, the worst it becomes when they are 17, 18.

Every year you delay in giving a smartphone to child, the outcome becomes better.

The behavioural changes that are very specific to smartphones are aggression and anger.

Is it because they are always in the toxic virtual world that is full of negativity?

Certainly, that is a main reason.

If you look at why this is happening, you will see that they are exposed to very negative content on social media. This makes them have a negative view of the whole world.

Next, when a child enters the cyber world when she or he is very young, it increases the chance of cyber bullying.

We see that a child experiencing cyber bullying is as bad as sexual abuse in the way it affects the mental health of the child.

Cyber bullying is worse than the bullying a child experiences in school.

By the time a child who is exposed to the online world at a very young age, becomes an adult, he/she must have experienced cyber bullying many times.

The public shaming affects the mental health of the child very badly.

Your survey is titled, Youth Mind Rising Aggression and Anger. What are they angry about?

It is not like they are angry about any particular thing.

When they feel that the whole world is negative and threatening, their approach to the world will be that of anger and aggression.

The feeling the adolescents have is, everybody is coming to attack me, everybody is against me, this is a very bad place to live...

This creates a hostile mindset among the youngsters. When you have a hostile mindset, you are angry and aggressive about everything.

The mindset they have is, when others say mean things to me, I also must be mean to them.

Generally, you talk about depression and anxiety in connection with mental well-being but here the issues we are facing because of the influence of smartphones is aggression and anger.

Do you think those who have smartphones live in the virtual world most of their waking hours?

Yes, the shocking statistics is, a person whether it is a child or an adult spends 5 to 8 hours on the phone daily. That is half the waking hours!

This takes away time from the healthier things you should be doing.

And the most important thing is, phones are taking away the time you should be interacting with people.

Before the Internet era, parents talked to the babies, looking into their eyes. They interacted with the child when they took the child out.

What do they do now? They give the child an iPad and expect the child to entertain itself. Where is the interaction between the child and the parent?

Even at the dining table, everybody is looking into their phones and not talking to each other.

Not just within the family, when they are with their friends also, they are on the phone.

Human beings are designed to be a part of a social group, which means we learn social cues and communication when we interact with other human beings.

How do we learn languages? When we speak to other people, when we communicate in the language?

Do you think the communication skills of these people will also get affected?

Of course. Just imagine out of the 5 to 8 hours you spend on the phone in a day, you would have talked to some other person at least for 4 to 5 hours.

Before the Internet, we would have spent 20,000 to 25,000 hours talking to other people by the time we are 18. In the process, we learn social skills and a lot about other people's behaviour.

I think today's children would not have spent even 5,000 hours interacting with people by the time they are 18.

In the process, they lose touch with reality also...

Yes, they lose touch with reality. What happens then? They do not know how to handle social situations, how to form a relationship, how to maintain a relationship, how to get along with people...

In social media, if you don't like someone, you block the person which is not possible in real life. You have to learn to deal with difficult situations and difficult people.

Since they don't have interactions with real people, they lose touch with reality.

Another important factor is, how smartphones affect your sleep. Constant scrolling of the phone disrupts sleep.

When you don't get enough sleep, you get angry and irritable. Sleep is extremely important for the well-being of a person. Not just your body, your brain also needs sleep.

Some of the studies done in the US say that children at 9 and 10 are exposed to serious pornography online. This is extremely dangerous.

Studies done in the West find that unlike in the past when the young adults between the ages of 18 to 24 were always happy and optimistic about the world, today's young adults are cynical, pessimistic and angry.

The change happened after smartphones came into their lives.

Since smartphones are a recent phenomenon, are we going to see its negative effects and problems soon in young adults?

Yes, smartphones are a recent phenomenon. But we are starting to see the challenges.

For example, when the kids who are coming out of college and those who are in their early twenties come into the workforce, they find it uncomfortable meeting people, working in a group and talking in public. They find it difficult to solve problems or get along with their colleagues.

Imagine the situation when an entire generation of people in the workforce without social skills but with aggression and anger.

As their focus is poor, their productivity also will be low.

You will start seeing these kinds of problems very soon, if they have not started already.

When these people become older and older, they would be running all the companies and systems in the world. How will it be then?

You mean we can expect a dangerous situation very soon?

I think so. If you have a generation where the dominant feeling is that of aggression and anger and being detached from reality, it is a very dangerous situation.

We are not talking about 5% or 6% of the population, it will be 40% to 50% of the population with such a frame of mind.

Australia has banned smartphones for children below the age of 16. Do you think every country should have such a law?

Given the seriousness of the situation, it is a good move that Australia has done. What is important is, how the ban should be implemented.

You can give a basic phone to children just for communication. They need not have access to the Internet on their fingertips.

The problem is we allowed the Internet to grow in an unregulated way.

Maybe in the future, there will be a different way of handling the Internet so that it won't be as dangerous as it is today.

The magnitude of the problem is so huge that no individual parent can solve it by themselves.

The time has come for serious collective action. Otherwise, we are looking at a scary scenario.

Do you feel parents also are a reason for the situation?

Yes. Even within the families, everybody shuts themselves in their rooms.

Parents are also always on the phone, looking at their social media. They don't want their children to bother them.

So, parents also are part of this problem as they are also addicted to their phones and scrolling all the time when they should be spending time with their children face to face.

With people isolating themselves more and more, there is social disintegration happening in society.

Today's parents detach themselves from their adolescent children in the name of 'giving space'. Do you think when these children are exposed to a dangerous virtual world, what they need is help and not space?

What you are saying is a global phenomenon, this kind of 'space' increasing between children and parents.

Many studies have found that children all over the world are experiencing parental neglect and parental abuse.

Children say that they are more materially provided for, but they are neglected emotionally. They don't feel stability or love or warmth at home.

I think giving them space and isolating them is going to have the opposite effect. This is creating more detachment from reality. Because of this, children are not deeply connected with other people, mainly their parents.

Since your study has exposed the magnitude of a very big problem today's world faces, what will you tell the parents of adolescent children?

It is a fact that no single parent can solve this problem; this can only be solved collectively.

But I would like to tell a few things to parents.

1. As parents, you have to be aware of what the Internet is doing.
2. You have to be more present with your child. You have to be there in person.
3. You have to practice what you preach. You can't be online all the time and tell your child, don't do what I do. That's not the way to deal with the problem.
4. You shouldn't be focusing more on material things and academics. The focus should be on the warmth of the home.
5. You have to be aware of the dangers of smartphones, and you have to be part of the policy change.

• ALSO READ: 'When Boys Are Rejected By A Girl, They Resort To Toxicity'

Feature Presentation: Ashish Narsale/Rediff.com