https://www.theregister.com/2025/12/30/ipad_kids_are_more_anxious/?td=rt-3a 'A group of Singaporean researchers who studied a cohort of 168 children for more than a decade found that those exposed to screens in infancy (before two years of age) showed accelerated maturation of brain networks involved in visual processing and cognitive control. That faster specialization, the researchers suggest, was associated with slower decision-making in childhood, and in turn, higher anxiety symptoms in adolescence. "During normal development, brain networks gradually become more specialised over time," according to the study's lead author Dr. Huang Pei. "However, in children with high screen exposure, the networks controlling vision and cognition specialised faster, before they had developed the efficient connections needed for complex thinking." The result, Huang said, is limited brain flexibility and mental resilience, leaving children less adaptable later in life, as evidenced by higher anxiety scores in cohort kids who had more screen time before age 2. '
