Cell phone and social media bans: Digital natives are stricter than older ones

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Among other things, the Postbank Digital Study 2025 asked parents what they think about their children's smartphone and social media use. The majority favors a cell phone ban in schools. However, looking at different generations of parents, there are also differences in the restrictions that parents impose. Digital natives, for example, restrict their children's social media use more than the generation of parents before them.

The study distinguishes between parents who are currently between 18 and 39 years old – digital natives (DN) – and parents who are 40 years or older; they are referred to as digital immigrants (DI). As a recent Bitkom survey has already shown, parents are gradually restricting the use of digital devices or online services such as social networks for their adolescents, decreasing as the children get older.

More control or personal responsibility?

According to the study, digital natives are stricter when it comes to cell phone use before bedtime, for example (36% DN vs. 26% DI) and are also more likely to limit their daily usage times (40% DN vs. 28% DI). For digital immigrants, it is more important that cell phones are not used during meals (46% DN vs. 54% DI), and they also rely much more on so-called “personal responsibility” without fixed rules for cell phone use (7% DN vs. 16% DI). With a difference of only one percentage point (50 percent DN vs. 49 percent DI), all parents surveyed stated that they forbid cell phone use during school hours and while studying.

When asked whether they think a ban on cell phone use in schools makes sense, 81% of respondents answered in the affirmative. Of these, 49% said, “Yes, cell phones interfere with lessons and concentration,” and 32% said yes to a ban, but also said, “There should be exceptions for certain situations.”

Digital natives allow less social media

Two-thirds of respondents allow their children to use social media, although here too, digital immigrants give their children under the age of 18 more free rein than digital natives. They allow more daily usage time (more than two hours a day, 17% DN vs. 17% DI; one to two hours a day, 31% DN vs. 35% DI) and also issue fewer prohibitions on using social networks at all or only rarely (20% DN vs. 13% DI). Digital natives also monitor what their children do on social networks more closely (48% DN vs. 35% DI), while more digital immigrants do not monitor this at all (13% DN vs. 28% DI).

The answers of the different generations of parents to whether there should be an age limit of 16 for social media could therefore be surprising. Digital natives agreed with this at 55%, digital immigrants at 68%. Thirty-two percent of DNs and 23% of DIs believe that an age restriction is too high but otherwise think it is basically right.

Meanwhile, digital natives are lowering the cut-off point for starting to use a smartphone by having access to their device. They are more likely to give children under the age of 12 their smartphone than digital immigrants (under 6 years: 6 percent DN vs. 2 percent DI; 6 to 8 years: 14 percent DN vs. 12 percent; 9 to 10 years: 29 percent DN vs. 24 percent DI). Today, 71% of adolescents have their smartphone by the age of twelve at the latest, and 44% of children by the end of primary school.

All parents surveyed achieved the highest score in a year-on-year comparison in their self-assessment. 85% stated that they are a fairly good or good role model for their children in terms of their Internet use. Last year, the figure was 79%, while the previous high of 80% was reached in 2021. If parents perceive themselves as bad role models, it is because they use the internet too much, or rather too much.

Thomas Brosch, Head of Digital Sales at Postbank, explains the results: “Many parents want to prepare their children for the digital world at an early age and consciously accompany them on this path. This fits in with their growing self-image of setting a good example themselves. [They] set a clear framework, especially for learning and family time such as eating together. The smartphone is part of everyday life, but not always and everywhere.”

Methodology

For the “Postbank Digital Study 2025 – The Digital Germans,” 3,050 residents were surveyed between May and June of this year, 805 of whom had children in the household. According to Postbank, the sample was weighted according to federal state (proportionalization), age, and gender to depict a population-representative structure. The 2022 census of the Federal Statistical Office was used as the reference file. The results were rounded to whole numbers. Deviations in the totals can therefore be explained by rounding differences.

(kbe)