Smartphones, Early Puberty, and Bad, Scary Headlines

A recent headline sounded the alarm about a study that found that smartphone use was related to the early onset of puberty in children. This headline was a real triple threat: fear of technology, children under threat, and sexualization of kids. BUT. The study was not a study. It was an abstract presented at a conference talking about an unpublished paper. Also, the study in question looked at rats that had been exposed to blue light for upwards of 12 hours a day. There are a lot of problems with the connections being made here and with all the fearmongering. Let us tell you about them.

Related HCT episodes:
Check out our podcast episode about the responsibility of media in science reporting: https://www.healthcaretriage.info/reproducibility-podcast

Misunderstanding the Data on Diet, Exercise, and Mortality: https://youtu.be/P3mutIrl2dQ

Be sure to check out the rest of our podcast!
https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLkfBg8ML-gInFaYyYhKLBp2u7h5IojTw4

Other Healthcare Triage Links:
1. Support the channel on Patreon: http://vid.io/xqXr
2. Check out our Facebook page: http://goo.gl/LnOq5z
3. We still have merchandise available at http://www.hctmerch.com
4. Aaron's book "The Bad Food Bible: How and Why to Eat Sinfully" is available wherever books are sold, such as Amazon: http://amzn.to/2hGvhKw

Credits:
Aaron Carroll -- Writer
Meredith Danko – Social Media
Tiffany Doherty -- Writer and Script Editor
John Green -- Executive Producer
Stan Muller -- Director, Producer
Mark Olsen – Art Director, Producer

Images and Footage
Edwin Tan/Vetta/Getty Images
Zyabich/Creatas Video+/Getty Images Plus
Synthetic-Exposition//Creatas Video+/Getty Images Plus
simonkr/Creatas Video/Getty Images
commandoXphoto/Vetta/Getty Images
Olena Kurashova/iStock/Getty Images Plus

Видео Smartphones, Early Puberty, and Bad, Scary Headlines канала Healthcare Triage