Inside the Growing Push to Ban Social Media for Kids

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Caitlin McCabe (0:08)

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Caitlin McCabe (0:12)

Its subsidiaries and affiliates. Corporate headquarters is located in Madison, Wisconsin. Hey, What's News listeners. It's Sunday, December 7th. I'm Caitlin McCabe for The Wall Street Journal, and this is What's News Sunday, the show where we tackle the big questions about the biggest stories in the news by reaching out to our colleagues across the newsroom to help explain what's happening in our world. On the show this week, we're talking about teens and social media, which in some parts of the world is facing a new frontier. This week, Australia will officially ban children under the age of 16 from using a range of social media platforms, including Facebook, TikTok and YouTube, as part of a government effort to protect Australians' mental health and well-being.

Anthony Albanese (1:00)

We know that social media can be a weapon for bullies, a platform for peer pressure, a driver of anxiety, a vehicle for scammers, and worst of all, a tool for online predators. And because it is young Australians who are most engaged with this technology, it is young Australians who are most at risk.

Caitlin McCabe (1:23)

That's Prime Minister Anthony Albanese speaking a little over a year ago, around the time that Australia became the first country to pass such a ban. In the months since, US states and nations around the world, from Denmark to Malaysia, have also made moves to tighten social media controls for teens.

Caroline Stagg Olsen (1:43)

When you talk to the social media platforms today, they would state that they already have some kind of age verification, right? That nobody under the age of 13 are able to access the social media platforms. But for instance, in Denmark, when we look at the numbers, 48% of children below that hasn't turned 10 yet, they have a social media profile. And before they turn 13, the number is almost 100%.

Caitlin McCabe (2:12)

Denmark's digital minister, Caroline Stage Olsen, speaking to CNN there, sharing a concern that both politicians and parents have these days, that social media platforms are doing more harm than good. Studies have found that frequent social media use can foster dependency akin to substance addiction, exacerbate anxiety and depression, and in the most severe cases, elevate the risk of suicidal behaviors and ideation. In a sign of just how urgent some health officials consider this, the US Surgeon General warned two years ago that social media can pose a profound risk of harm to children and adolescents, especially because their brains are in a highly sensitive period of development. It shouldn't come as a surprise that big tech, and even some teens, don't necessarily agree, with companies arguing that bans can be ineffective or risk sending teens to darker corners of the internet. So what's the right solution here? Today, I'm joined by two journal tech reporters, Georgia Wells and Sam Schechner, to help unpack it all.

Georgia and Sam, you were both a part of the Journal's award-winning Facebook Files series, which dug into Facebook and Instagram's effects on young users. You both also spend a lot of time covering social media now. Georgia, what do we know about the impact of these apps on teens?

Georgia Wells (3:41)

We know that social media can exacerbate many of the tough situations teenagers find themselves in. So we're talking about eating disorders, anxiety, depression, peer pressure. Social media can also facilitate bullying and it can help predators find and groom children. So when we're looking at the harm columns, there's a lot of ways that researchers believe social media can exacerbate some of the toughest challenges teenagers face.

Caitlin McCabe (4:08)

One thing that I remember from your Facebook Files series was a pretty powerful stat from MEDA's own research team, which was that 32% of teen girls said that when they felt bad about their bodies, Instagram made them feel worse. What is it about social media that makes teens feel this way?

Georgia Wells (4:27)

So typically when we're talking about anxiety and depression on social media, we're talking about this concept that stems from negative social comparison. That encapsulates this feeling when you're scrolling and scrolling social media, that your life doesn't stack up to the people on the feed. Basically, it happens when you mix insecurity with a feed that typically comprises only the most glamorous moments of people's lives.

Sam Schechner (4:52)

If I could just jump in, I think that what you were saying, Georgia, about amplification is also a big part of it. TikTok innovated this, but it's since been widely copied across social media, that when you stop on a video, it's going to start serving you more of that type of content. And our feeds now are kind of populated, oftentimes super served with our deepest desires, maybe our deepest fears. And at that age, it can be a lot. It's a lot even for me as an adult, you know, sometimes being bombarded with the things I see. And so, you know, when I look at my 11-year-old son, who is not on social media right now, at least not that I know of, I'm grateful that he's not having that kind of really supersized exposure and falling into what can sometimes be called a rabbit hole of a certain type of content, whether it's self-harm content or drug content or highly sexualized content.