Calls for Teen Social-Media Limits Spread as Perils Grow Clearer

Mark Zuckerberg exits Los Angeles Superior Court on Feb. 18. Photographer: Kyle Grillot/Bloomberg Photo by Kyle Grillot /Bloomberg

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(Bloomberg) — The push to protect children from social media’s harms is gaining momentum globally and beginning to reach Big Tech’s home turf in the US.

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A groundbreaking Los Angeles jury verdict last week found Meta Platforms Inc. and Alphabet Inc.’s Google negligent in the design and operation of their popular platforms — saying they harmed a young user with products created to be addictive. Now, several states including California are getting serious about potential regulation to limit young people on social media, following a trend that’s accelerated in recent months around the world. 

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Australia kicked off the global push, forcing the companies along with TikTok Inc., Snap Inc. and Elon Musk’s X to boot Australian users under 16 off their platforms in December. The movement has since gained traction with Indonesia, parts of India, the UK, Ireland, France, Germany, Spain, Mexico, Canada and others discussing bans. Austria said on Friday it aims to pass legislation to curb social media use this year, Denmark has already agreed to similar restrictions, and Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis has said the sites’ mental health damage to children is “unambiguous.”

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The result is a patchwork of proposals that range from outright bans for younger teenagers, like in Australia’s regime, to requiring parental approval or oversight, like in Brazil and Portugal. Different countries have different ideas about which technology companies should be covered and regulators are grappling with a spectrum of ways that teenagers can connect and share content online. Such varied approaches across so many jurisdictions will make tech companies’ compliance more complex.

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“Parents around the world are really understanding the nefarious impact that social media is having on their kids’ mental health and their physical safety,” said Matthew Bergman, founding attorney of the Seattle-based Social Media Victims Law Center, which represented the plaintiff in the LA case.

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He said governments or states imposing social media age regulations can work in a complimentary manner to the legal path his organization is taking to hold the companies accountable for their actions. 

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Young people are important to Big Tech because they are building habits, he said. “It’s not dissimilar to cigarette companies,” he said. “If you can get them hooked in their teens, they will be lifetime customers throughout.”

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California Gov. Gavin Newsom has started saying that he, too, wants to restrict access for those under 16, even though his state is home to Instagram, Google’s YouTube and Snapchat. The platforms face thousands of product liability lawsuits in the US, and attorneys general in about 30 states are also suing the firms. The companies could face tens of billions of dollars in liability, according to Bloomberg Intelligence.