Short-Form Video Use and Child and Adolescent Health: Engagement-Promoting Features and Preventive Perspectives

Short-form videos are a familiar source of entertainment and information for children and young people. Although individual videos are brief, personalized recommendations and easy access to the next clip can extend viewing. In serialized stories, curiosity about what happens next may encourage continued viewing and purchases of paid episodes. Children are still developing the ability to balance immediate enjoyment with future goals. This narrative review considers how this developmental process interacts with smartphone-based viewing and summarizes evidence on sleep, mental health, attention, cognition, and school functioning. Existing studies report associations between problematic use and poor sleep, depressive and anxiety symptoms, and lower academic engagement. However, causal relationships remain uncertain, and evidence for preschool and primary-school children is limited. Assessment should address difficulties stopping, reasons for viewing, and interference with daily life, rather than viewing duration alone. Prevention should not depend solely on children’s self-control or parental supervision. The responsibilities of service providers and content producers also deserve attention when continued viewing and purchasing contribute to revenue. Family, school, and healthcare support should be combined with developmentally appropriate design that makes stopping easier and prices and purchase conditions clearer. These approaches require evaluation using outcomes that matter to children’s health and daily functioning.