ORIGINAL RESEARCH article
Front. Psychol.
Sec. Human Developmental Psychology
Volume 16 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2025.1596595
Smartphones Through Children's Eyes: Perceived Benefits and Educational Considerations
Provisionally accepted
- University of the Basque Country, Bilbao, Spain
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Smartphones have become integral to modern life, particularly among children and adolescents.While they offer benefits such as communication, creativity, education, and entertainment, concerns persist about their negative impacts, including cognitive delays, impaired social skills, and mental health issues such as anxiety and depression. This study aims to explore children's perspectives on the benefits of smartphone use, emphasizing the importance of their viewpoints in creating effective regulation, support, and education. By allowing children to express their opinions freely, the study highlights the need for a child-centered approach to address smartphone usage and its impact. A total of 642 children from the Basque Country participated in this study, sharing their views on smartphone use. The research used qualitative and quantitative methods to analyze children's perceptions, offering valuable insights into their experiences. The findings revealed four key benefits as perceived by children: socializing with friends and contacting parents in emergencies, searching for information, alleviating boredom, and engaging in multimedia entertainment. Children who owned smartphones emphasized communication with friends and access to academic information, whereas those using their parents' devices primarily focused on entertainment. The study also examined smartphone education in schools and discussions with parents, revealing significant relationships with the perceived benefits. Our findings highlight the importance of early digital education to ensure safe and balanced smartphone use while recognizing the role of boredom in children's creative and emotional development.
Keywords: Child-centered research, Smartphone use, Digital Education, children's perspectives, Lexicometric analysis, Well-being, boredom, mobile technologykeyword1
Received: 28 Mar 2025; Accepted: 02 Jun 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Gaztañaga, Idoiaga Mondragon, Legorburu Fernandez and Eiguren Munitis. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence: Nahia Idoiaga Mondragon, University of the Basque Country, Bilbao, Spain
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