Research
Policymakers worldwide are raising social media age minimums to 15–16 and mandating age verification, but the core empirical justification remains contested: experimental evidence for causal harm to the under-16 population is essentially nonexistent, and the 13-year threshold these laws are replacing was never grounded in developmental science to begin with. The central tension is that the primary enforcement mechanism — identity-based age verification — is opposed across the ideological spectrum, with civil libertarians, structural critics, and market-oriented analysts all warning it creates population-scale surveillance infrastructure while doing little to stop determined circumvention, and Global South evidence suggests it is structurally unenforceable wherever state ID systems are weak. Platforms currently comply with existing minimums at near-zero rates, high-enforcement regimes like China's show measurable outcomes but also risk displacement to less-regulated spaces, and no jurisdiction has yet resolved how to protect children without either surveilling them or cutting off the marginalized youth — particularly LGBTQ+ adolescents — who depend most on pseudonymous online access.
As of 10 December 2025, age-restricted social media platforms need to take reasonable steps to prevent Australians under the age of 16 from creating or ...
Sites like Spotify are also requiring users to submit face scans to third-party digital identity company Yoti to access content labelled 18+.
The Australian Government is protecting young Australians at a critical stage of their development, through world-first social media age restrictions. Learn ...
The age limit is 13 because of the Children's Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA), which was passed in 1998. COPPA restricts websites from ...
Minimum age of 13: Facebook, Instagram and TikTok, for example. These services are guided by the COPPA law from the USA. · Minimum age of 16: WhatsApp, for ...
Half of the U.S. now mandates age verification for accessing adult content or social media platforms. Nine states saw their laws take effect ...
Our AI rapidly analyzes the facial features of the selfies submitted, keeping your users moving through the platform without the need for a full identity check.
Addresses the collection, use, and disclosure of personal information about children collected from children through websites or other online services.
This scoping review synthesized published recommendations for social media companies and governments in relation to young people's (aged 12-25 years) mental ...
"Our study found that while some apps disabled registration if users input ages below 13, but if the age 16 is provided as input initially then ...
Studies indicate that adolescents who spend significant time on social media are more likely to experience negative mental health outcomes, including decreased ...
The use of social media should be limited so as to not interfere with adolescents' sleep and physical activity. Research recommends adolescents get at least ...
TikTok and ByteDance have maintained no U.S. user data has or would be shared, and say a ban violates the Constitution's First Amendment ...
Prohibit social media platforms from allowing children under the age of 13 to create or maintain social media accounts, consistent with the current practices of ...
61% of girls say they use Snapchat, compared with 49% of boys. Meanwhile, boys are more likely to use Reddit (21% vs. 12%) and YouTube (94% vs. ...
Lawmakers around the world are considering banning social media for children, but it's unclear if this will solve the problems at hand.
All of Our Personal Data is Put at Risk. An age-verification system also creates acute privacy risks for adults and young people. Requiring ...
On November 30, 2023, the U.S. District Court for the District of Montana preliminarily enjoined enforcement of a state law banning TikTok in ...
Stone, have brought together experts from a variety of disciplines to explore the complexities of this problem. They include Jack Balkin, Emily Bazelon ...
First introduced in 2022, KOSA would allow the Federal Trade Commission to sue apps and websites that don't take measures to restrict young ...
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 ...
Most countries are targeting the minimum age for social media at 15 or 16 ... Despite variation in legal traditions, regulatory cultures and ...
Some online platforms apply different policies, services, and practices relating to access to content, parental controls, and content moderation, among other ...
This Advisory calls attention to the growing concerns about the effects of social media on youth mental health. It explores and describes the current ...
A growing field, “regulation by design,” seeks to incorporate functional constraints, especially relating to privacy and data protection [27, 28] ...
The government of Denmark announced on Nov. 7 that it plans to ban social media for children under the age of 15. Sign up for our newsletter ...
COPPA imposes certain requirements on operators of websites or online services directed to children under 13 years of age.
If someone posts illegal content like child sexual abuse material, that user can still be held liable for producing and distributing such ...
This article examines the neurobiological impact of prolonged social media use, focusing on how it affects the brain's reward, attention, and emotional ...
SB 152 does four things, each designed to give parents the power to control what their kids see and who talks to them online.
This initiative aims to allow EU users to prove they are old enough to access legally age restricted sites, starting with being over 18 years of age.
This Advisory describes the current evidence on the impacts of social media on the mental health of children and adolescents.
In this article, we examine Australia's landmark decision to ban social media access for children under the age of 16, set to take effect in December 2025.
Restrictions introduced at the national level can be bypassed by changing one's geographic location digitally, using tools such as VPNs, virtual ...
Between 18- and 24-months screen time should be limited to watching educational programming with a caregiver. For children 2-5, limit non-educational screen ...
Social media platforms can provide LGBTQ youths with a space that counters heteronormative environments and potentially supports mental health and well-being.
Social media age-verification laws raise First Amendment concerns given their impacts on minors, parents, social media companies, and adults who ...
A systematic review found that the use of social networking sites is associated with an increased risk of depression, anxiety, and psychological distress.
This paper examines the constitutional, ethical, and practical tradeoffs of mandatory age verification laws for social media, with particular
The Court ruled that “no person—adult or child—has a First Amendment right to access speech that is obscene to minors without first submitting ...
We document mental health trends since the mid-1990s, focusing on mental and substance use disorders among young people and their current needs.
Hypothesis 1. The engagement-based timeline will show tweets that are more emotional (along four dimensions of anger, sadness, anxiety, and happiness), compared ...
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