Enough with the moral panic over smartphones. The kids are all right | Catharine Lumby

An article in the Atlantic has found some alarming results linking depression and technology. My research with Australian teens paints a different picture

• Catharine Lumby is a media professor at Macquarie university

A recent article in the Atlantic brings parents of teenagers fresh alarming news about the deleterious effects of smart phones on their offspring. Written by a respected researcher in psychology, Jean M. Twenge, the article claims that the use of smartphones is directly correlated to teen suicide, depression and a sense of isolation and low self-esteem, particularly among teenage girls.

Before I give you the good news, let me share the bad news. If you have read her disturbing article and want to buy your teenager a "non-smart" phone - that is a phone that is not connected to the internet - you can't. One of my teenage sons continually drops or loses his smart phone and very sensibly asked me to find a phone that was cheap and relatively unbreakable.