Supermajority of Americans Fret About Youth Social Media Addiction

A supermajority of Americans believe that social media has become too addictive for children and that it needs more regulation to combat this, according to a poll released Sunday.

Eighty-five percent of Americans believe social media addicts children and can harm their mental health, a Reuters/Ipsos survey revealed. A strong bipartisan majority of Americans want the government to have more oversight of social media as many states have sued big tech companies citing their platforms’ alleged harm to children.

“I don’t know what the regulation looks like, but something needs to be done by the government to protect the people,” Christopher Chen, a Washington, D.C., resident, told Reuters.

“They have workarounds to get around blocks that their parents have put on their phones. They’re pretty intelligent when it comes to that,” Paula Dick said, according to the outlet, adding it remains too easy for her grandchildren to access blocked social media applications.

Sixty-one percent of respondents — including 71% of Democrats and 62% of Republicans — said social media companies need stronger oversight and 66% back laws that would require age verification to keep children under 16 from accessing social media platforms, according to the Poll. Seventy-four percent of Republicans back such laws compared to 69% of Democrats. The poll comes as Meta and Google face increasing legal pressure based on their treatment of young users.

Seventy percent said they enjoy their time on social media, while 35% said it makes them stressed.

Nearly 6 in 10 U.S. adults back a social media ban for children under 16 years old, a Pew Research poll found in July. Eighty-five percent of those surveyed support companies requiring parental consent for minors to create an account.

More than a dozen states have enacted laws restricting young Americans’ access to social media, while NetChoice, a trade association backed by Meta, TikTok and Snap — the parent company of Snapchat, have sued stop stop these laws. The organization believes these laws violate constitutional free speech protections.

Attorneys general from California, Colorado, Kentucky, and New Jersey sued Meta, claiming $1.4 trillion in penalties for allegedly designing its Facebook and Instagram platforms to addict children. The trial will start this week.

“A sanction of that size ​has no analog in the history of consumer protection enforcement,” the company said in the filing in July, denying the accusations laid against the company, according to Reuters.

A New Mexico state court in August ordered Meta to pay over half of a billion dollars into a teen mental health fund and change how its platforms works for young users, according to ABC News. The judge found that Meta created features such as endless scrolling, autoplay, notifications and content recommendations to keep teenagers engaged on its platforms.

Addictive social media features contributes to depression, self-harm and other mental health disorders, the judge argued.

Democratic New Mexico Attorney General Raúl Torrez called the ruling a “historic moment.”

“Somebody’s got to ‌do it. Is it the government’s job? I don’t want it to be. I think maybe it should be,” James Bosserdet, a 60-year-old engineer from Tennessee and a Trump voter, told Reuters about the government’s role in regulating social media.

The Reuters/Ipsos poll contacted 4,505 American adults via an online survey and had a margin of error of plus or minus two percentage points.