Untapped potential: Population health co-benefits of restricting social media and smartphone use among young people.

Efforts to reduce youth social media and smartphone use, including social media age restrictions and restrictions on smartphone use in schools, are increasingly being implemented in response to concerns about mental health and educational outcomes. However, evaluating these policies solely through these lenses may overlook broader population health implications. This commentary argues that digital restrictions can be viewed as upstream interventions that modify digital environments and may yield co-benefits, defined as additional favourable outcomes beyond their primary aims. Drawing on evidence linking excessive screen time and social media use with poor sleep, physical inactivity, sedentary behaviour, and unhealthy dietary patterns, we propose three pathways through which such policies may generate health co-benefits. First, restrictions may improve sleep by limiting behaviours associated with shorter and poorer-quality sleep. Second, because most recreational screen use is sedentary, restrictions may reduce sedentary time and encourage incidental physical activity. Third, they may reduce exposure to digital marketing of unhealthy foods and other harmful commodities. We also discuss equity, unintended consequences, and research gaps. Evaluating these outcomes may strengthen the evidence base for digital restrictions as one component of a comprehensive child health and chronic disease prevention strategy.