专家表示，如今青少年越来越倾向于自主控制电子设备使用时间并主动休息，而非依赖父母强制设限。
研究显示，越来越多的儿童开始主动远离智能手机，以更好地管理心理健康、保障人身安全并提升专注力。
专家指出，面对日益增长的担忧——即过度使用网络可能带来危害，青少年们正通过自主管理社交媒体和智能手机的使用来应对这一问题，而非依赖父母来强制设限。
受众研究公司GWI基于对18个国家2万名青少年及其父母的调查数据显示，自2022年以来，12至15岁青少年主动远离智能手机、电脑和iPad的比例已从18%上升至40%。
伦敦政治经济学院儿童数字未来中心主任索尼娅·利文斯通教授表示，这些发现与即将发表的研究结果相呼应。该研究发现，儿童和青少年正尝试多种方式来管理网络生活对身心健康的影响，包括暂停使用社交媒体、转移对网络负面信息的注意力、在互联网上寻求更积极的体验，甚至在某些情况下完全退出社交媒体。
利文斯通表示：“孩子们已经从父母、媒体以及自身经历中明白，过度使用社交媒体并不总是有益的。”
因此他们正在尝试各种保护身心健康的方法，同时又不愿完全放弃社交媒体。我相信他们正在相互交流哪些方法对自己有效，并共同探索前行的道路。
“无智能手机童年”组织联合创始人黛西·格林威尔表示，她越来越多地与年轻人交流，这些年轻人开始质疑“在网络上成长是不可避免的”这一观念。
她表示：“我们经常听到青少年抱怨，他们因时刻保持在线连接的压力而感到精疲力竭，有些人为了心理健康正主动选择退出。”
越来越多人开始意识到，这些平台并非中立。它们的设计初衷就是操控注意力——人们逐渐明白，自己的时间、专注力乃至自尊心，正被全球某些巨头公司变现。‘暂停使用’已成为一种反抗行为。英国通信管理局（Ofcom）的研究印证了这一点：2024年报告显示，33%的8至17岁网民认为自己的屏幕使用时间过长；另一项研究发现，47%的16至24岁社交媒体用户会关闭消息通知并启用‘勿扰模式’，较2023年的40%有所上升，而成年用户中这一比例仅为28%。
34%的年轻人更倾向于主动暂停使用社交媒体（相比之下，23%表示不会这样做）；29%因花费过多时间而选择卸载应用（19%不会这样做）；另有24%出于心理健康考虑删除应用（13%不会采取此措施）。
巴斯大学行为科学教授戴维·埃利斯指出，青少年可能比父母更快地发现了那些能帮助人们控制社交媒体和智能手机使用时间的功能——不过他提到，关于这些功能能否长期改变行为的证据并不一致。
埃利斯表示：“如果有人能减少坐在屏幕前的时间，转而增加身体活动量，大多数人可能会认为这是件好事。但另一方面，这些时间也可能被其他不那么有益的事情所取代。”
此前接受《卫报》采访的18至25岁年轻人表示，他们认为父母一代“完全不了解情况”，过早让他们接触智能手机；而部分受访者称，他们会限制自己子女使用智能手机，直到他们接近成年。
最新民调显示，近半数年轻人宁愿生活在一个没有互联网的世界，同样比例的人支持实行数字宵禁；而超过四分之三的受访者表示使用社交媒体后自我感觉更糟。
GWI研究还发现，在包括气候变化、战争和住房成本在内的清单中，社交媒体成瘾位列父母对孩子担忧的前三位。另有8%的受访者表示，在观看Netflix热门剧集《青春变形记》（揭露网络厌女症危害）后，他们对孩子使用屏幕的时间限制变得更加严格。
Teenagers increasingly taking breaks as they control own use of devices rather than relying on parents to enforce limits, experts say
Children are increasingly taking breaks from their smartphones to better manage their mental health, personal safety and concentration spans, research has revealed.
They are reacting to growing concerns that spending too much time online can be harmful by taking control of their own social media and smartphone use rather than relying on parents to enforce limits, according to experts.
The number of 12- to 15-year-olds who take breaks from smartphones, computers and iPads rose by 18% to 40% since 2022, according to the audience research company GWI , drawing on a survey of 20,000 young people and their parents across 18 countries.
Prof Sonia Livingstone, the director of the LSEs Digital Futures for Children centre , said these findings were echoed in soon to be published research , which has found that children and young people are trying various options to manage how their online lives affect their wellbeing, including taking a break from social media, distracting themselves from negativity online, seeking more positive experiences on the internet and in some cases quitting social media altogether.
Livingstone said: Children have got the message C from their parents, the media, their own experiences C that too much social media isnt always good for them.
So they are experimenting with different ways of protecting their wellbeing, without wanting to give up on social media entirely. Im sure theyre talking to each other about what works for them and figuring out the way ahead.
Daisy Greenwell , the co-founder of Smartphone Free Childhood, said she was increasingly speaking to young people who were questioning the idea that growing up online is inevitable.
She said: We regularly hear from teenagers who are exhausted by the pressure of being permanently connected and who are choosing to step back for their own mental health.
Many of them are waking up to the fact that these platforms arent neutral. Theyre designed to manipulate attention They are realising that their time, focus and self-esteem are being monetised by some of the worlds biggest companies. Taking a break has become an act of rebellion. This is reflected in Ofcom research. A report from 2024 found that a third (33%) of eight- to 17-year-olds who are online think their screen time is too high, while another found that 47% of 16- to 24-year-olds who use social media deactivate notifications and used do not disturb mode, an increase from 40% in 2023, and compared with 28% of older adult users.
Thirty-four per cent of younger people were more likely to take a deliberate break from social media (compared with 23% who said they would not do this), 29% would delete apps because they spend too much time on them (compared with 19% who would not), and 24% would delete apps for their mental health (compared with 13% who would not).
David Ellis, a professor of behavioural science at the University of Bath, noted that teenagers may have discovered the features that let people control their time on social media and smartphones more quickly than their parents C though evidence that these features change behaviour in the long term was mixed, he said.
Ellis said: If someone is going to spend less time sitting in front of a screen and instead increase their levels of physical activity, then most people would probably view that as a net positive. On the other hand, that time could be replaced by something else less beneficial.
Young people aged 18 to 25 who spoke to the Guardian previously said they felt their parents generation didnt have a clue and had granted them too much access to smartphones too young, while several said they would restrict access for their own children until their late teens.
A recent poll found that almost half of young people would rather live in a world where the internet did not exist and a similar proportion would support a digital curfew, while more than three-quarters felt worse about themselves after using social media.
The GWI research also found that social media addiction ranked among parents top three fears for their children from a list that included climate change, war and the cost of housing, while 8% said they had become tougher about screen-time limits after watching the hit Netflix show Adolescence about the dangers of online misogyny.