Kentucky lawmakers heard testimony Friday on the effects of smartphone and social media use on young people.

The Interim Joint Committee on Education heard first from NYU researcher Zach Rausch, who worked with well-known social psychologist Jonathan Haidt on New York Times Bestseller The Anxious Generation.

Rausch offered a sobering view of how smartphone use and social media have affected childhood, heightened anxiety and depression among teens, and left many feeling stuck online.

"Nearly half of young people wish that the major social media platforms that many kids are using every day were never invented," the researcher said. "This is nothing like the kinds of products that we often think about when we grew up, like bikes, television, or radio. And it actually looks a lot more, in my opinion, like cigarettes, and how cigarette smokers deeply regret the amount that they smoke and regret starting in the first place."

The comparison naturally leads to another question: Is quitting social media the new "Just Say No"?

Rausch noted that social media places a unique kind of hold on users. Once considered optional, it's now regarded as essential to young people's social lives and even those who feel worse after spending hours a day online often believe they can't afford to give it up.

"It's still an area that's actively being debated, but what we've seen in our own research is that when we look at social media reduction, when people are asked to reduce their use either by half or fully for at least two weeks to get over potential withdrawal effects of one day, two day, three day, at the beginning, we see consistent improvements in anxiety and depression," Rausch said in his presentation.

Lawmakers went on to hear from Kentucky school leaders and colleagues on how different policies -- from phone-free class time to full bans of cell phone use at school -- have played out in different scenarios.

While some have seen positive effects from what they call smartphone "detoxing," others noted pushback from parents and students who want access to communication throughout the day. That's led to attempts to balance the competing concerns -- allowing for some use of phones when necessary, but not as a rule.

Sen. Emily Callaway said a principal in her district tested out special bags where students would drop cell phones before class and retrieve them afterward, but ultimately decided against the policy.

"There were some definite benefits, but she ended up pulling them out," Callaway explained. "Her approach was we want to teach our high schoolers to be able to regulate this themselves. They're about to go out into the real world, and it's not going away. We need to be able to equip them to regulate it appropriately."

But not all are swayed by the case put forward by Rausch and Haidt. In a Guardian article, University of California, Irvine, psychology professor Candice Odgers argues the research mistakes correlation for causation. Another critic compared the conclusions about the dangers of social media to the "moral panic" over video games and real-world violence.

Most lawmakers in committee appeared highly receptive to Rausch's arguments, citing similar concerns from constituents, teachers, and parents. Whether the issue becomes a hot button next year in the General Assembly remains to be seen.

Committee chair Sen. Stephen West indicated that lawmakers are likely to file several bills related to the issue in 2025.