Thousands of schoolchildren in Bradford set to take part in study limiting social media usage
Thousands of schoolchildren in Bradford are set to take part in a study to examine whether or not limiting social media use can improve their mental health
Young people between the ages of 12 and 15 will take part in a trial called IRL (In Real Life) with each given a 'daily budget' of time to use certain apps.
It will also stop them from using apps like TikTok and Snapchat between the hours of 9 pm and 7 am.
The results of the impact on those children will be compared with youngsters who use social media normally.
Dr John Pickavance is a researcher at Born in Bradford who are behind the trial: "We get half of the young people, say we've got 4000 young people, we'll get half of them to try the restrictions and then half of them will just download the app and there'll be no restrictions.
"Then, over the course of six weeks, we'll be able to see if there's any differences between those two groups. For example, are there any differences between mental health and wellbeing."
During the trial researchers from the Born in Bradford and the University of Cambridge will compare levels of anxiety, depression and sleep between the groups.