Research points to how companies could make social media less addictive for teens

Key Points:

• Two recent court verdicts in California and New Mexico found Google and Meta responsible for harm to children's mental health due to addictive social media platform designs, including Instagram, Facebook, and YouTube; both companies are appealing the decisions.
• Research indicates that social media use among teens can exhibit addiction-like behaviors such as withdrawal and compulsive use, with 11- and 12-year-olds showing significant signs of inability to reduce usage and preoccupation with apps.
• Compulsive social media use in young adolescents is linked to increased risks of depression, attention problems, suicidal behaviors, sleep disturbances, and substance experimentation one year later.
• Experts recommend design changes to make social media safer for minors, such as limiting notifications (especially likes), restricting infinite scroll and personalized feeds, enhancing privacy defaults, and implementing effective age verification.
• Parental controls and regulatory measures like the Kids Online Safety Act are crucial, but until stronger regulations are enacted in the U.S., parents bear the primary responsibility for limiting children's exposure to potentially harmful social media content.