Social media use by youth is nearly universal. Up to 95% of youth ages 13–17 report using a social media platform, with more than a third saying they use social media “almost constantly.” Although age 13 is commonly the required minimum age used by social media platforms in the U.S., nearly 40% of children ages 8–12 use social media. Despite this widespread use among children and adolescents, robust independent safety analyses on the impact of social media on youth have not yet been conducted. There are increasing concerns among researchers, parents and caregivers, young people, healthcare experts, and others about the impact of social media on youth mental health.

The landscape of social media is ever-changing, especially among teens who often are on the leading edge of this space. A new Pew Research Center survey of American teenagers ages 13 to 17 finds TikTok has rocketed in popularity since its North American debut several years ago and is now a top social media platform for teens among the platforms covered in this survey. Some 67% of teens say they have ever used TikTok, with 16% of all teens saying they use it almost constantly. Meanwhile, the share of teens who say they use Facebook, a dominant social media platform among teens in the Center’s 2014-15 survey, has plummeted from 71% then to 32% today.

Children creating content on social media

Although the minimum age for creating a social media account is 13, 38% of tweens (aged 8 to 12) report using social media. About 18% of tweens and 62% of teens report using platforms like Snapchat, Instagram, Facebook, Discord, and Reddit every day. Additionally, 64% of tweens and 77% of teens said they watch online videos every day.

When signing up for an account, it is easy to enter a fake birthday to appear older. Some social media platforms are starting to use age verification to figure out who is too young, who is a teen, and who is an adult – to help make the experience more age-appropriate for teens – but this doesn’t happen on all platforms.

The Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA) was passed by Congress in 1998. It states that online services can’t collect or share data from children under the age of 13 without parental permission. This age limit was based on existing federal communications policies that used the age 13, as well as industry lobby resistance to covering all teens up to 18 with data privacy protections. Although age 13 marks the transition between childhood and the “teen” years, this age selection for federal communications policies does not seem to be based on any specific sign of developmental readiness.

Studies looking at when children began using social media have generally found increased risks for negative outcomes in children who were younger than age 13 (Note: these studies looked at “traditional” social media platforms like Snapchat and Instagram but did not include online video streaming platforms like YouTube or messaging apps).

• A recent survey found that kids who started social media at age 10 or younger were more likely to be victims of online harassment and more likely to have online friends or social media accounts that parents would disapprove of. These youth were also more likely to display unsympathetic online behaviors such as sharing discriminatory or fake content, making passive-aggressive comments, or engaging in cyberbullying.
• For tweens already struggling with body image, early social media use made it worse.
• There were major impacts on sleep – later bedtimes and fewer hours of sleep on school nights for kids who started social media earlier.

While there is less evidence around benefits of beginning to use social media before age 13, studies did find that those who began using social media earlier tended to be more involved in supportive or civically-active communities online compared to those who started later. 

What are the risks?

America’s children and teenagers are literally dying from social media. They are more depressed and anxious than ever before. New data from the CDC shows that nearly 3 in 5 teen girls felt persistent sadness in 2021… and 1 in 3 girls seriously considered attempting suicide. The Wall Street Journal recently reported that for the first time in 15 years, the mortality rate for 0–19-year-olds actually increased two years in a row. For decades, advances in healthcare and safety have driven down death rates among American children. In an alarming reversal, rates have now risen to the highest level in nearly 15 years, in large part driven by suicides and drug overdoses.

The internet harbors a wide range of content. While a lot of it can be appropriate for kids and teens, there will always be information out there that can cause harm by exposing kids or teens to violence, dangerous acts or ideas, and individuals with harmful intentions. Social media creates an enhanced and largely unfiltered way for people around the world to share information with each other, and not all people will have good intentions or will post responsibly. If kids or teens are looking for it, they may be able to easily access information on self-harm strategies, ways to complete suicide, harmful messaging on body image, and promotional information on disordered eating, among other things.

Many sites may also expose kids and teens to hate-based content. One study found that about 64% of adolescents reported being “often” or “sometimes” exposed to hate-based content, including racist, sexist, and political content, as well as cyberbullying from peers online.

Social media and some anonymous communication websites can also be platforms that allow people to engage in predatory behaviors. The ability to be anonymous on the internet and to contact anyone else on platforms clears the way for people with malicious intentions to target children and adolescents. Reports from one study identified that approximately 6 in 10 adolescent girls reported being contacted by a stranger on social media in an inappropriate way.

Excessive use of social media has been linked to sleep problems, attention difficulties, and depressive symptoms. Social media use can be especially problematic at nighttime, as it impacts the individual’s ability to get to sleep on time, and the use of screens right before bed is linked to poor sleep quality and shortened sleep duration. Poor sleep has also been linked to an increase in depressive symptoms in teenagers, including suicidal thoughts and behaviors. Social media use has also been shown to increase feelings of exclusion, and specifically, the fear of missing out. Having constant access to peers’ lives and information on their social engagements creates an easy avenue for social comparison. For many adolescents, this comparison and the resulting belief that others are benefiting from experiences they do not have has been linked to increased depression and anxiety.

Entire families creating content on social media

‘Kidfluencers’ are children who have gained a considerable online following by creating child-centered content on social media channels. The children are hardly ever the owners and decision-makers behind their platforms, but are guided and encouraged by their parents.

Within the last 7-10 years, content created by children has become increasingly popular, especially amongst other children. The most common types of content include toy reviews and daily video blogs (vlogs) documenting the children’s lives. The high viewing numbers of these videos have made them easily monetisable through brand deals and sponsorships. One of the most popular child influencers known under the name Ryan’s World is reportedly earning an estimated amount of 22 million US Dollars a year. Even though only a small number of kidfluencers are this successful, the prospect of earning a steady income has attracted many families to participate in the trend.

As it becomes the norm to post content of babies and toddlers online to share them with family and friends, we have to reassess what level of privacy is normal in our society. As the digital environment changes and we become more and more comfortable with having an online presence, it is important to consider how this may affect children in the future.

‘Kidfluencers’ are often exposed to the public eye as soon as they are born and can therefore not consent to be posted online. The absence of consent can present multiple risk factors:

• Children born into the public eye do not get the autonomy to decide how much information they want to share online. Information that is posted online stays there forever, which makes it very difficult for these children to re-establish a sense of privacy later in their lives.
• There are currently no child labor regulations in place that protect kids from working long hours on social media. The absence of strict regulations facilitates the risks of potential child exploitation.
• Being exposed to social media at such a young and impressionable age can seriously impact children’s mental health. Dealing with the pressures of being a role model for a big audience and being exposed to potential negative comments can heavily affect children’s self-image and self-esteem and lead to issues such as disordered eating or body dysmorphia.
• Content posted online is automatically part of the public domain and can be seen and used by anyone. In some cases, parents have found images they posted of their children on social media reproduced on Child Sexual Abuse Material (CSAM) platforms. Reportedly, innocent images of children have been merged with CSAM, thereby creating deepfake images that were then shared on the darknet. The reproduction of kidfluencer content on illegal sites puts these children at risk of being targeted by groomers and sexual offenders online.

The idea of making a steady income through social media is understandably an appealing scenario. However, everybody allowing and encouraging children to post content about themselves online must be aware of the potential associated risk factors and do their best to keep children safe from abuse. This can be achieved, for instance, by monitoring and restricting followers on children’s profiles or by closely observing the content created and posted by children.

Apart from advocating for individual responsibility and educating parents and other social media users about the harmful consequences for the affected children, we also must keep pushing social media platforms to implement stricter privacy and safety regulations regarding the sharing and distribution of minors’ images online.

When are children ready for social media?

Kids often start pushing for access to social media in late elementary and early middle school, and parents feel pressured to allow it because they don’t want their children to feel left out. But delaying social media immersion helps ensure that they will be more mature about what they post, more able to resist its addictive appeal, and less vulnerable to emotional harm.

While it will look different for each family, general steps parents can take to prepare for safer social media use include:

• Model good social media behavior. Limit screen time and engage with others in-person in front of your child. Much like we try to teach our children healthy eating habits we need to teach them healthy screen time habits, too.
• Scroll and discuss. Using your own feed, explain what is acceptable or unacceptable and why, including posted content and comments. Explain that posts represent a moment in time and most people only post positive experiences. This can give the impression that another persons’ life is better, which should be talked about.
• Use safety features. Consider turning off likes and comments, turn off geo-tags/ tracking features, and explain the risks associated with posting your location. For kids, location sharing and viewing can be dangerous, and it can also lead to feelings of loneliness or not being included.
• Set agreed-upon expectations. A family media plan, including limits on screen time, content boundaries (don’t post selfies or photos of others without consent), and protecting personal information, should be established. If the plan is not followed, a consequence of time away from screens/social media should be enforced.

Parents should also watch for signs of trouble, which could be the result of social media use or other stressors in kids’ and teens’ lives:

• Complaints they’re bored or unhappy when they don’t have access to technology
• Tantrums or resistance to screen time limits
• Changes in school performance, ability to concentrate, or sleep or eating habits
• Reduced interest in activities or face-to-face communication with parents or peers
• Mood swings or sustained sadness, anxiety, irritability or anger
• Substance use