How parents and teens feel about state efforts to regulate social media

A Virginia law is facing scrutiny after an internet advocacy group filed a lawsuit last week challenging the policy, which limits young people’s use of social media to an hour per day. The legal scuffle points to a growing trend of state efforts to limit young people’s use of social media, but those efforts could fall flat if lawmakers don’t consider their effect on the parents and children they are meant to empower, a new report from the Center for Democracy and Technology says. 

Such laws are a “great cause” to try to “protect and keep [youth] safe online, but we also need to make sure that their voices are heard,” said Michal Luria, research fellow at the Center for Democracy and Technology. 

It’s crucial for lawmakers to understand how minors and their caregivers view social media requirements because their attitudes toward controls like age verification “really matter in whether they adopt a particular [app] feature or policy,” she explained. 

Across the U.S., 13 states have approved laws aimed at restricting minors’ access to social media sites as of August with many lawmakers citing the platforms as negatively impacting children’s mental health and their performance in school.  

The Center for Democracy and Technology report offers policymakers insights on how parents and teens feel about various approaches to social media safety features, which can help inform the development of social media laws that feel safe and easily adoptable for families. The report includes feedback from 45 parents and teenagers across the nation. 

Policies aimed at preventing youth’s extended or inappropriate use of social media should be designed with flexibility in mind, according to the report. 

For example, a law like Virginia’s, which is slated to go into effect Jan. 1, 2026, would require minors to gain verifiable parental consent to increase or decrease their child’s daily time limit beyond the required one hour per day. 

But strict time limits for using social media were generally viewed unfavorably by teens and parents, Luria said. Such time restrictions were often seen as “too controlling” or “excessive” by respondents, with some parents reporting that being in charge of setting time limits could be burdensome, according to the report. 

Lawmakers could instead consider requiring platforms to send users reminders about their social media usage, according to the report. Alerts that remind teens to take a break from scrolling, for example, could be more digestible for users to reflect on or alter their social media behaviors. 

Similarly, teens expressed “little enthusiasm” for efforts aimed at controlling algorithmic feed recommendations, the report stated. 

A New York law that passed last year, for instance, looks to prohibit social media companies from pushing algorithm-based feeds to minors in an effort to curb youth’s excessive use of such platforms. According to the report, however, teens were satisfied with algorithmic feeds as they showed content more aligned with their interests than chronological feeds. 

These findings suggest that controls or restrictions on algorithms could remain limited, particularly as teens reported that they felt confident using in-app features, like the ability to flag certain posts as not interesting, to influence the content they are suggested. 

Another way lawmakers could weave flexibility into social media regulations is by putting the onus of age verification on parents rather than minors, according to the report. 

Many participants expressed concerns about the security and privacy of minors’ personal information when completing age verification tasks like submitting a photo of their ID or themselves, Luria said. Teens and parents were also skeptical of such technology’s ability to properly assess the physical differences between a 14-year-old and a 16-year-old, the report stated. 

Policymakers can strike a balance between age verification and users’ trust by requiring parents’ confirmation of a minor’s age before they can access certain apps and sites, according to the report. For instance, sites can send an alert to a parent’s device that requires their approval before a child can download or use it on their own device. 

Such legislation was introduced in Ohio earlier this year, and it is currently being considered by lawmakers. Under the law, people 16 years or younger will need parental permission to download apps that are “likely to be accessed by children.” 

Similar efforts are underway in Louisiana, Texas and Utah, according to the Statehouse News Bureau. 

Parental age verification is still “quite novel” as an approach to social media safety policies, but offers a way for policymakers to allow families to determine what content is appropriate for their children to access and what isn’t, rather than leaving that decision up to lawmakers, she said. 

“Participants supported this approach as it maintains a level of control within the family, and prioritizes open communication between parents and their children,” the report stated. 

Children and teens can vary significantly in maturity when it comes to their social media use, and lawmakers should try to avoid blanket restrictions that do not account for youth’s individual experiences, according to the report. Participants said, for instance, that younger children may need stricter controls on what they access, but older teens are more likely to have more self-control over their social media use. 

Ultimately, as lawmakers continue their push to protect young people from the harms of social media, it’s critical they remember that families “perception is going to drive adoption,” Luria said. 

“If the goal here is to keep kids safe and not drive them away to less safe apps,” she explained, “then we need to include them in the conversation, and we need to make sure that their views are being considered.”