Rethinking social media for children

Recently, three minor sisters ended their lives after jumping off the balcony of a ninth-floor flat in Ghaziabad, when their parents restricted their mobile phone usage. The preliminary police reports indicated that the tragic incident is linked to severe addiction to online gaming. While experts opined that it reflected ‘a fatal outcome of a digital dependency’. Recent data indicate that globally about 25.89 per cen of adolescents suffer from internet addiction, with 40 per cen experiencing addictive use of social media. A WHO 2022 study of 44 countries in Europe, central Asia and Canada, found that 11 per cen of adolescents, 13% of girls and 9% of boys, exhibit signs of problematic social media use, and that 12 per cen of adolescents are at the risk of troublesome gaming, with boys significantly more affected (16 per cen) than girls (7 per cen).

While socio-psychologists maintain that a combination of factors, such as biological vulnerability, tailored platform designs with the ease of access and personalisation of algorithm-driven content, and a shifting social landscape drawing children more towards the world of social media. A Pew Research Centre study in 2025 noted that 36 per cent of the US teens use one of five platforms, YouTube, TikTok, Instagram, Snapchat and Facebook, ‘almost constantly’, and around 64% of use AI chatbots, with 30% doing so daily. In its  2024 poll, it was revealed that many teenagers themselves have reported becoming more uneasy about the time they spend online, with girls in particular telling that apps were affecting their self-confidence, sleep patterns and overall mental health. While Jason Nagata, an associate professor of paediatrics, University of California, has alerted that the social media exposure has a detrimental impact on sleep, future depression and weight gain in adolescents. One recent study also found that even low levels of social media use, about an hour per day in children under 13 was associated with poorer cognitive outcomes.      As of 2021-25, globally,  approximately 1 in 7 (or nearly 15 per cent) 10 to 19-year-olds experience mental health disorders, accounting for 13-15% of the total global burden of disease in that age group, with anxiety and depression being the most common ( World Health Organisation (WHO) & UNICEF data). In India, nearly one in four adolescents reports symptoms consistent with anxiety or depression, while the NCRB has documented a steady rise in students’ suicides over the past decade.

However, Tech companies claim to implement several layers of child safety measures, ranging from automated content filtering to advanced parental supervision and age verification tools. But, experts from Common Sense Media, a non-profit that evaluates entertainment and technology options for kids and families, and Stanford Medicine regarded the current safeguards as insufficient for minors. The European Commission recently found that TikTok’s ‘addictive design’ features,  bypass the current safety efforts. While many regulators and advocacy groups argued that the AI driven age-verification systems raise serious privacy and data security concerns for minors, as they are increasingly centred on ‘Safety by Design’.

Now, an ongoing ‘bellwether’ trial in a Los Angeles superior court  (K.G.M. v. Meta et al.), the first representative ‘test case’ against social media companies for their ‘defective platform design products’, in which the plaintiff,  a 20-year old Californian woman,  who started using YouTube since the age of 6 and Instagram from nine, and now suffers from anxiety, depression and body dysmorphia, makes them liable under product liability standards. Platforms, earlier, got away from accountability under section 230 of the Communications Decency Act for users’ content. Her lawyer compared the social media’s product designs to dopamine-seeking ‘slot machines’  and ‘digital casinos’. Mark Zuckerberg, CEO, Meta, first time before the jury, defended Meta’s safety efforts, and denied that Meta maximises user time through addictive features. On the issue of user age, he underlined the need for better parental control at the device level. The case has drawn comparisons with the war against Big Tobacco companies in the 1980s, which had been accused of downplaying risks about cigarette smoking.

While a Pew Research Centre survey of US parents in 2025, revealed that a majority of the parents felt that parenting today meant making tough choices about technology.  Eight-in-ten said the harms of social media outweigh the benefits.Two-thirds of parents (67%) said tech companies should do more to set rules around what kids can do or see online, and a 55% said that lawmakers should do more. The updated screen time guidelines issued by the American Academy of Pediatrics in 2016, impose an additional responsibility on parents and caregivers to establish rules that fit their lives and families. 

Meanwhile, Australia, the world’s first, has imposed a social media ban for children under 16, targeting major platforms with massive non-negotiable fines for non-compliance. Many countries like Denmark, France, and Greece, are set to follow suit. While the US federal Govt. is still at a crossroads to regulate the industry, and many state laws face First Amendment challenges. In India, the Economic Survey of India (2025-26) has called for age-based limits for social media usage by children, and two states, Andhra Pradesh and Goa are mulling over such legislation. But, critics consider bans are technically difficult to implement, and mostly lead to a mass migration to Virtual Private Networks (VPNs), the unchecked web corners. In India, the Digital Personal Data Protection Act, 2023, has also come under criticism for  its ‘consent gating’ provisions which may result in either false declarations or exclusion. As parents in today’s world navigate a new frontier of raising children alongside technology, cyber parenting or digital parenting has become a reality. In 2019, WHO issued new guidelines, restricting the screen time for children under age 5 to one hour or less daily, and those under age 1 no time at all, saying that since early childhood is a period of rapid development, family lifestyle patterns should be adapted to boost health gains. Now, there is need for a ‘digital wellness plan’ for every family through encouragement, engagement and empowerment to help a child maintain a healthy and balanced relationship with digital technologies that supports  overall well-being.

The writer is a former Director General of All India Radio, a retired Indian Information Service officer, and a media educator.; views are personal