Most Americans Don’t Want Youths Under 16 to Use Social Media Platforms

(The Daily Caller)—The vast majority of Americans back banning social media for children under the age of 16, according to a Pew Research Center poll released Wednesday.

Almost 6 in 10 U.S. adults support a social media ban for children under 16 years old, the survey suggests. Meanwhile, roughly one-in-five respondents oppose such a ban and about a quarter said they were unsure, per the poll.

The survey also found that 85% of Americans voiced support for social media companies requiring parental consent for minors to create an account, marking an increase from 81% in 2023. Moreover, 78% would back requiring age verification before using these platforms, up from 71%.

Of those surveyed, 78% of adults said they support imposing limits on how much time minors are allowed to spend on social media platforms, compared to 69% in 2023.

Up to 95% of youths ages 13 to 17 use social media, with over one third reporting that they use it “almost constantly,” according to an Office of the Surgeon General report published in the National Library of Medicine. From July 2021 to December 2023, 50.4% of U.S. teenagers ages 12 to 17 had 4 hours or more of screen time per day, according to the National Center for Health Statistics.

Social media usage can have various unhealthy impacts on teenagers, including distracting them from doing their schoolwork, exercising and family activities, disturbing their sleep and providing them biased or incorrect information, according to a December 2025 Mayo Clinic report. The report also notes some possible upsides to teens using social media platforms, such as being able to connect with other teens both locally and across long distances, and getting information about how their peers cope with difficult life situations and mental health conditions.

Congress has been considering legislation that would bolster online safety protections amid a surge in suicides among adolescents and young adults across the U.S., The Hill reported.

In Australia, children under 16 have been banned from using 10 major social media platforms since December 2025, but it has been recognized that many of them have continued using the prohibited apps, BBC News reported.

The Pew Research Center’s survey was conducted from May 26 to June 1 among a random sample of U.S. adults. A total of 9,750 panelists responded out of 11,184 who were sampled, for a survey-level response rate of 87%.

The poll’s margin of sampling error for the full sample of 9,750 respondents is plus or minus 1.4 percentage points.