Children using social media at younger age appear to do worse in school tests

One of the best predictors of the performance gap was how often children picked up their phones throughout the day and night. Photograph: True Images/Alamy

Children who open social media accounts at the start of secondary school appear to perform worse in tests than those who delay, with researchers suspecting that the constant checking for updates is a major distraction for many students.

Pupils who opened their first social media account aged 11 to 12 scored lower in mathematics and reading tests than those who waited a few years, with scores at age 16 differing between the groups by the equivalent of about six months of learning, the study found.