More than 40 states and the District of Columbia are suing Meta, the parent company of Facebook and Instagram, alleging its platforms purposefully use addictive features that harm children’s mental health, Pew Research Center reported.
Amid this news, U.S. adults and teens are more likely to support than oppose requiring parental consent for monitors to create a social media account and requiring people to verify their age before using these platforms, according to a pair of new Pew Research Center surveys. But adults are far more supportive than teens of these measures, as well as limiting how much time minors can spend on social media.
Adults’ views on social media policies aimed at minors
Most U.S. adults (81%) say they support social media companies requiring parental consent for minors to create a social media account. About seven-in-ten favor requiring people to verify their age before using social media (71%) and setting limits on how much time minors can spend on these platforms (69%). Only about one-in-ten adults oppose each of these three measures.
Still, some adults are uncertain. For example, roughly one-in-five are unsure if companies should require age verification (18%) or set time limits for minors (17%).
Views among adults by age, party and parental status
Many social media companies do not allow those under 13 to use their sites. Still, there’s a growing movement to develop stricter age verification measures, such as requiring users to provide government-issued identification. Legislators have pushed for mandatory parental consent and time restrictions for those under 18, arguing this will help parents better monitor what their children do on social media.
In a Pew Research Center survey, they found there is strong bipartisan support for these types of policies. Clear majorities of Republicans and Democrats – including independents who lean to either party – support parental consent, time limits for minors and age verification.
Majorities of adults across age groups support social media companies introducing these measures. But young adults are less supportive than their older counterparts. For example, 67% of those ages 18 to 29 say social media sites should require parental consent for minors to create an account, but this share rises to 84% among those ages 30 and older.
Additionally, majorities of parents and those without children back each of these measures, though support is somewhat higher among parents.
Teens’ views on social media policies for minors
Building on the Center’s previous studies of youth and social media, we asked U.S. teens ages 13 through 17 about their views on these measures.
Teens are more likely to support than oppose social media companies requiring consent for minors to create an account (46% vs. 25%). There’s even more support for requiring people to verify their age before using these sites – 56% of teens favor this, while 16% oppose it.
But their views are more divided when it comes to setting limits on how long minors can use these sites. Similar shares of teens support and oppose this (34% vs. 36%).
For each of these policies, about three-in-ten teens report being unsure if this is something social media companies should do.