Associate Professor Asad Khan from UQ's School of Health and Rehabilitation Sciences spoke to ABC about a link between screen time, social media and mental health problems in young people.
Dr Khan led a large global study of more than 570,000 11-15-year-olds that did find a strong link between recreational screen time and mental and physical health problems.
"Now, the scientific community is desperately trying to understand the causal mechanism because there is speculation that the relationship could be two-way," Dr Khan said.
"People using social media are more likely to have some kind of mental disorder. But on the other hand, the kids who are depressed or have some mental condition, they're more likely to use screens."