Guwahati, April 29 -- Hugh Breakey, Griffith University

The social psychologist Jonathan Haidt's new book The Anxious Generation delivers an urgent call for action.

Haidt argues that the evidence is in. Teenagers' widespread use of smartphones is causing a mental health crisis. Individual, collective and legislative action is required to limit their smartphone access.

Review: The Anxious Generation: How the Great Rewiring of Childhood is Causing an Epidemic of Mental Illness (Allen Lane)

Haidt begins his book with an allegory. Imagine someone offered you the opportunity to have your ten-year-old child grow up on Mars, even though there is every reason to believe that radiation and low gravity could greatly disrupt healthy adolescent d...