On July 25, 2024, U.S. Senator Maria Cantwell spoke on the Senate Floor about the damage social media companies were inflicting on their users, especially children. When she cited the dangerous effects that social media has inflicted on youth, and the copious amounts of revenue social media companies have generated from child-targeted advertising, the Senate overwhelmingly voted to advance two new bills to protect children online.

“Americans, including kids, are being tracked across the internet and every place they go with a phone or mobile device,” Cantwell said during the hearing. “Social media companies are harvesting our children’s personal data and making billions of dollars a year through targeted ads.”

Five days later, the U.S. Senate passed the Kids Online Safety Act (KOSA) and the Children and Teens’ Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA 2.0). 

KOSA aims to safeguard children from online harm by mandating online platforms to activate the most restrictive settings for children by default and allowing them to opt out of algorithmic data collection. COPPA 2.0 extends these protections, banning social media companies from collecting personal information from anyone under 17 without their explicit consent.

Senior Isaiah Palacios supports the passage of new teen safety laws, as he believes they help regulate the content children encounter on social media.

“I do feel like we need stricter laws to protect children from seeing things they shouldn’t see or look at,” Palacios said. “It’s just unethical to use an algorithm to see what people like in order to keep them hooked on your platform.”

Despite the new laws, some students have doubts about their effectiveness. The main concern is how easily users can bypass age restrictions when creating social media accounts, as the application cannot verify the user’s accurate age. 

“I think [the current social media regulations] are too easy to bypass,” senior Ryan Kindberg said. “Let’s say a kid isn’t seeing what they’re supposed to see on their Instagram page, they could just make another account. There’s always ways to get around [social media policies].”

Generational trends are another reason policymakers have struggled to enact online teen safety legislation. Lawmakers and young users view the dangers and prevalence of social media differently.

“There is a huge difference in the way that adults know when to stop, they’re more capable of disconnecting and actually getting work done,” Palacios said. “Whereas, for children, it’s more lucrative and it’s harder for them to disconnect because they’re getting drawn in.”

Kindberg believes social media companies should be doing more work themselves to regulate online protection.

“The content on [social media] is really in [social media platforms’] control… It’s completely up to them, what shows up and what doesn’t, so I feel like they should be doing more,” Kindberg said.

Instagram

Amid growing concerns about social media’s negative effects on teens, Instagram launched “Instagram Teen Accounts” on Sept. 17. These new accounts introduce several changes to the teen experience, including defaulting all accounts to private, implementing strict messaging restrictions, and adding a sleep mode. For users under 16, these settings can only be changed with the authorization of a parent or guardian. 

To ensure age-appropriate content is shown to teens, accounts will automatically use the most restrictive setting for sensitive content control, limiting posts related to suggestive themes or suicide. However, these settings depend on teens accurately reporting their age. Instagram plans to increase age verification and develop technology to detect accounts operated by teens more effectively.

TikTok

While TikTok has safeguards to protect teens, its safety protocols are less restrictive than Instagram’s.

Like Instagram, TikTok sets all minor accounts to private by default, but teens can change this setting. The platform also attempts to limit content for users under 18 on topics like disordered eating, body image, graphic content, and substance use. If users are banned by TikTok for being underage, they can appeal the decision with a variety of options to get their account back. Another part of the online experience is screen time reminders to help teens manage their app usage. 

TikTok also utilizes a ”For You” page, which curates content based on an algorithm. This element, not as common on other platforms, makes it easier for teens’ content to reach a wide audience.

Youtube

For kids under the age of 13, YouTube has a dedicated YouTube Kids platform with tools that enable parents to supervise their child’s usage. For minors, YouTube’s main policies include strict content regulation in line with their community guidelines, covering content that encourages dangerous challenges, eating disorders, or the use of vulgar language.

To watch age-restricted content, users must be logged in and over 18. Videos often have limited ad monetization criteria, which encourages creators to keep their content age-appropriate.  According to Google’s Transparency Report, between April and June 2024, YouTube removed 5,046,178 videos for violating YouTube’s child safety policy, 163,000 for using hate speech, and 252,460 for showing violent extremism.

According to a study conducted by Common Sense Media, nearly half of children in the U.S. receive their first smartphone by age 10, and over 90% of children own one by age 14, marking their entry into the digital world. Along with these devices comes access to social media, but many teens struggle to fully grasp its dangers, both initially and even years after joining these platforms. 

As many teens use social media to document their day-to-day lives, it can foster unhealthy emotions, often leading to social isolation and detachment.

Wellness counselor Carolina Barraza said she sees this too often in teens.

“[Social media] can function as a way to numb ourselves after a stressful day along with it being addictive in nature,” Barraza said. “This then affects our responsibilities or even our self-care.

According to Barraza, teens who become reliant on social media to escape stressors may experience changes in their overall demeanor.

“I think [that] there’s already mental health issues teens [are] struggling with like isolations and feelings of loneliness and low motivation,” Barraza said. “I think a lot of social media issues or usage can then increase those feelings and not be supportive with those issues. 

One negative trait of many social media platforms is their permanence. Once a user posts something or interacts with a page, that engagement lives on the internet indefinitely. This has raised ethical concerns about big tech giants’ practices, something Burlingame National Association of Mental Illness (NAMI) club president Iny Li was quick to point out.

“There’s so many different elements about social media, especially the lack of restrictions that big tech companies have,” Li said. “It’s more about gaining profit and just gaining more attention to their platforms rather than protecting the kids and teenagers that are using [them].”

Beyond ethical concerns, social media has become a scary constant in teens’ lives, taking hours out of their days and becoming a primary way to connect with others. 

Sophomore Kate Durfee navigated middle school and her first high school years without social media. While she could still successfully form relationships with her peers, she said she does view it as a disconnect. 

“It definitely gets a bit awkward,” Durfee said. “Not having it makes it hard to keep up with my friends at times.”

Li has also seen social media’s effect on her peers personally, as it has begun to take over much of their lives.

“Doom scrolling, major doom scrolling. Our attention spans have been shortened so much,” Li said. “I have friends [where] whenever we’re studying, we have to put our phones in the middle of the table to ensure that we’re not constantly trying to check our latest notifications.”

Social media plays a pivotal role in teenage development, and with little to no effective guidelines in place, the protection and well-being of teens are in jeopardy. 

In order to collect information about teens and tech safety, The Burlingame B polled over 100 students on questions regarding social media, technology, and policy restrictions. The following statistics represent their responses.