Abstract
It would be criminal to toss a teen in the driver’s seat of a vehicle with no preparation or training, waving goodbye as they weave their way across town alone, endangering themselves and everyone else on the road. There are rules and laws against this, of course, just as there are around other potentially hazardous activities such as consuming alcohol and using firearms. As technology evolves, an increasing number of governments worldwide are considering putting these same types of age restrictions and protections in place for social media use. But is social media really as dangerous as driving or smoking? And if so, is government oversight and legislation the answer?
Pressure to protect minors from the dark corners of the internet has existed since the early days of the World Wide Web. At the time, adult predators in chat rooms, pornography, and gambling sites were the main offenders. Now, social media has taken over. As of 2024, there were more than three billion active users on Facebook, the largest social networking website. 1 And as of February 2025, approximately 5.24 billion people worldwide were social media users, representing 62.6% of the global population. 2
Protecting children and young teens from the downsides of social media took on new urgency in 2021 when a Meta whistleblower leaked internal emails purportedly revealing that the company was operating as usual despite having knowledge that its products were harmful to young users. 3 At the time, Meta said that these documents were misinterpreted, but they also put on hold their plans for the development and release of Instagram Kids, a version of the platform aimed at children.
Since then, governments worldwide have put age-related social media restrictions in place. In one of the strictest bans, Australia recently placed the responsibility to limit child and teen use on the tech companies, forcing social media platforms such as Instagram, Facebook, and TikTok to establish measures that would stop minors from logging in to their sites. Failure to comply could result in fines of tens of millions of dollars. 4
In the European Union, parental consent is required for the collection of personal data for all users under the age of 16, and each of the 27 member states can opt to lower that limit to 13. 5 Individually, EU countries have taken varying approaches to legislating the issue. While Great Britain does not have an Australian-style ban, they passed the Online Safety Act in 2023, which set specific age-related standards for social media platforms such as Facebook, YouTube, and TikTok. 6 Their Technology Secretary, Peter Kyle, has said that everything is “on the table” when it comes to keeping people safe online and has launched a study to explore the impact of smartphone and social media use on children.
Several EU countries have also imposed age limits for users registering without parental consent: France requires consent for minors under 15 to create accounts, Germany demands parental consent for users ages 13–16, Belgium requires children to be at least 13 years old to create a social media account without parental permission, and the limit is 14 years old in Italy. 5 The Netherlands has no laws regarding a minimum age for social media use, but the government banned mobile devices in classrooms from January 2024 to reduce distractions during the school day.
The United States’ approach is similarly piecemeal. As of the end of 2024, 12 of 50 states had passed legislation to try to address teen social media access: five with laws in place already, four coming into effect in 2025, and three tied up in court. 7 In addition, the Los Angeles Unified School District (the second largest in the United States) banned cellphone and social media use during school hours for students of all ages beginning in 2025. Finally, in 2024, U.S. Surgeon General Dr. Vivek H. Murthy called on Congress to implement warning labels on social media platforms, similar to the black box warnings found on cigarette packages, citing social media as a contributing factor to the mental health crisis among young people. 8 So far, this has not become law.
Murthy and other proponents of limiting child and teen exposure to social media do have evidence to back their claims. From their perspective, teens often say they enjoy social media while they are using it, but they also acknowledge that it may not be good for their mental health. Some young users say that social media makes them feel anxious or lonely or that they see inappropriate and distressing content when they log on. And Meta’s own internal research concluded that “teens blame Instagram for increases in the rate of anxiety and depression.” 9
There are studies that show that social media use can indeed harm some young people, and nearly all research has found a correlation between social media use and poor mental health, but the significance of these relationships is unclear. Some experts argue that negative effects are only associated with heavy social media use of at least 3–4 hours per day. 10 Yet, 90% of adolescents in the United States report having a social media account, with more than half using these platforms for more than 4 hours daily. 11 If the majority of teen users are using social media at so-called “heavy use” levels, maybe those effects are more widespread than one might originally think.
On the contrary, there is also research that says social media has no effect, or even a beneficial impact, on mental health for some children and adolescents. For example, one study found that 45% of participants reported no change in well-being immediately after using social media, 28% noted a decline, and 26% expressed a rise. 12 Participants in this project also said social media helps them feel more connected with their friends and less lonely and that it offers opportunities for creative expression. In another survey of high school adolescents, one-third reported feeling less alone because of social media. 13 A 2017 review of 36 studies examining how young people engage with friends online revealed that all of the benefits of face-to-face friendships may occur virtually as well. 10
It is also important to note that social media platforms are uniquely positioned to effectively deliver mental health support and other interventions to young people, meeting this notoriously resistant population where they already spend a great deal of time. Some such programs have already shown potential in addressing acute mental health needs, such as preventing self-harm and addressing suicidal ideation. 11
Realistically, the benefits and drawbacks of social media are different for each individual. How social media will affect a young person depends on numerous factors, including personality traits, who they interact with online, how long they spend online, their mood at the time, and the circumstances of their real life. This makes any generalizations about the effect of social media on young people inherently problematic. So what should be done? Lawmakers seem to think that age-related regulations will make a difference. But even if a government is successful in preventing teens from having access to social media—a nearly impossible task—any law or ban would be acting to improve the mental health of some at the expense of the mental health of others.
Despite empirical support that is flimsy at best, governments continue to yield to public handwringing by attempting to legislate the issue. Unfortunately, these types of laws are often ineffective and unenforceable for various reasons. For one, most children and teens are just as, if not more, tech-savvy as the adults around them. They are experts at getting around the rules while evading detection. Young people in search of social media alternatives could easily find or develop underregulated platforms and use unmonitored devices to access them. When China imposed strict controls on online gaming in 2019, young people were able to continue gaming by signing in with the names of older relatives or friends, using photos of other people to trick facial-recognition software, and even purchasing accounts on the black market, all of which discouraged them from reporting problems to adults and increased the danger for the population that the regulations were originally trying to protect. 10
Laws like these are also difficult to enforce because many young people do not have official documents to prove their age or identity. 14 As such, verifying a user’s age can be challenging. Age recognition software, which could potentially address this issue, is also controversial for its questionable accuracy and possible invasion of privacy. Some object to these laws on the grounds of rights violations, asserting that they either encroach on a parent’s right to make decisions about their children’s care or that they limit a citizens’ freedom of speech.
Strict social media bans instill feelings of isolation in kids and teens, fostering discontent and loneliness and leading to underdeveloped digital literacy skills. 11 As such, banning these apps for young people is not the answer, or at least not a complete one. However, this does not mean that we go back to the beginning and toss our children into the driver’s seat uneducated and unprotected. Instead, we can put safeguards in place so that everyone can feel protected as they navigate the internet.
The first line of defense in protecting our kids and teens in the digital landscape is for parents and guardians to supervise and collaborate with their children. These adults know their young people best. They can gauge factors beyond age (e.g., social maturity, impulse control, personality traits) to decide whether their child is ready to access social media and what limits will need to be in place to keep them safe. The second is education. The main goal of parenting is to help each child become an independent adult; this means teaching them to navigate social interactions and regulate their emotions both in real life and online. 11
Social media companies, too, have a role to play in developing and maintaining safer platforms for young users, and this is perhaps where laws and regulations can have the most impact. Tech companies should be required to make their platforms safer by providing parental monitoring capabilities, restricting access to violent or explicit content, and including built-in tools to help users limit the amount of time spent on each app. Fortunately, TikTok and other popular apps have already rolled out a series of parental control settings. For example, in 2020 TikTok launched a Family Pairing setting that allows parents to link their account to their child’s. 15 This connection gives parents control over all privacy settings on their child’s account. It also allows them to restrict the types of videos that come up on their child’s feed, limit screen time, limit or turn off comments and likes, and turn off direct messaging (which is already automatically disabled for users ages 13 to 15). These controls have since been enhanced with a Time Away feature that allows parents or caregivers to set time limits and a recurring schedule for their child’s account. TikTok has also given parents the ability to see who their teen is following, who follows them, and which accounts their child has blocked. 16
Recently, TikTok has acted to put responsibility in the hands of teens themselves with a new bedtime reminder that encourages them to stop using the app at night. 17 With this setting, if a teen under 16 is still using the app after 10 p.m., TikTok will interrupt their feed with a full-screen “wind down” reminder in hopes that this will help them work on healthy habits before they become adults.
As with all new cultural developments, there have been growing pains with the rise of social media, especially when it comes to young users. Yet, it is not an issue that we can simply avoid until users turn 18; eventually, everyone must navigate the virtual roads of the internet, and doing so alone with no prior experience is a dangerous proposition. Instead, young people need to test drive these apps safely, under supervision, when the consequences are not life and death. Recognizing that social media is only one part of a complex digital ecosystem, we must also prepare youth to critically engage with the broader online world—where search engines, algorithms, and emerging AI tools are rapidly shaping their cognitive and emotional environments.
Creating the necessary guardrails is complicated and requires a multi-pronged approach that includes government regulation, corporate responsibility, and family participation. But the widespread benefits of social media platforms and other technologies are worth the effort, so we need to work together to help make the virtual world safer for us all.