Welcome to the latest edition of State of the Screens.  

Estimated reading time: 4 minutes [1,055 words]

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Onward,

Michael Beach

Kids + Social Media

Setting the table: This is the 2nd part of our series focused on kids and cell phones/social media.

Flashback: Kids + Cell Phones

Eight big questions re: kids and social media:
1) How many teens use social media?
2) Which social media platforms are most popular with teens?
3) How much time do teens spend on social media?
4) How much time with social media is safe for kids?
5) When does social media become addictive?
6) What is the support level for limiting kids’ access to social media?
7) Is Instagram safe for kids?
8) Is TikTok safe for kids?

Big question #1: How many teens use social media?

Quick answer: 95% of teenagers have at least one social media account.  

Wow #1: 40% of 8-12 year olds use social media.

Wow #2: The average child is 13 when they get their first social media account. 

Bottom line: First, a child receives a smartphone, then social media follows less than 2 years later.

Big question #2: Which social media platforms are most popular with teens?

Share of teens who use the following social media platforms, according to Pew:
1) YouTube - 90%
2) TikTok - 63%
3) Instagram - 61%
4) Snapchat - 55%
5) Facebook - 32%

Interesting: YouTube is more popular with boys, and TikTok/Instagram ranks higher among girls.

Big question #3: How much time do teens spend on social media?

Quick answer: The average teenager spends 5 hours daily on social media.

Daily hours spent on social media by age group, according to Gallup:
1) 17 - 5.8
2) 15 - 5.1
3) 18 - 5.0
4) 16 - 4.9
5) 14 - 4.5
6) 13 - 4.1

Daily hours spent on social media by gender:
1) Girls - 5.3
2) Boys - 4.4

Big question #4: How much time with social media is safe for kids?

Quick answer: According to the U.S. Surgeon General, teens who spend 3.5+ hours a day on social media are twice as likely to have poor mental health.

Ruh roh: The average teen surpasses this number by 37%!

Big news: The U.S. Surgeon General recently called for a tobacco-like warning label for social media.

Quote from Josh Golin - Executive Director @ Fairplay:
“Social media today is like tobacco decades ago: It’s a product whose business model depends on addicting kids. And as with cigarettes, a surgeon general’s warning label is a critical step toward mitigating the threat to children.”

Big question #5: When does social media become addictive?

Quick answer: According to TikTok’s research, a user is likely to become addicted after 35 minutes.

Big question #6: What is the support level for limiting kids’ access to social media?

Support for limiting kids’ access to social media, according to Pew:
1) Requiring parental consent - 81%
2) Requiring age verification - 71%
3) Time limits for minors - 69%

Big question #7: Is Instagram safe for kids?

Quick answer: It depends.  Young kids and girls bear most of the negative impacts of Instagram.

Must read: Facebook Knows Instagram Is Toxic for Teen Girls, Company Documents Show

Quote from internal Instagram research:
“Thirty-two percent of teen girls said that when they felt bad about their bodies, Instagram made them feel worse.  Comparisons on Instagram can change how young women view and describe themselves.”

How this happens: The below example shows what a 19-year-old girl's feed looked like over 2 minutes.

Quick math on a teen girl’s Instagram feed:
1) 2-minute session
2) 33 different stories
3) 14 different ads
4) 8 of 14 ads (57%) contained some “body image” content
5) Teen girls spend 66 minutes every day on Instagram
6) The teen girl in this example would see 46 “body image” ads every day on Instagram alone

Quote from Eva Behrens - a 17-year-old student at Redwood High School in Marin County, CA:
“Every time I feel good about myself, I go over to Instagram, and then it all goes away.”

Quote from Richard Blumenthal - United States Senator:
“Facebook’s answers were so evasive—failing to even respond to all our questions—that they really raise questions about what Facebook might be hiding.  Facebook seems to be taking a page from the textbook of Big Tobacco—targeting teens with potentially dangerous products while masking the science in public.”

Big question #8: Is TikTok safe for kids?

Quick answer: F**k no.  Let’s take all the bad parts of Instagram and give them to a geopolitical adversary with a decades-long plan to weaken our society. It seems like a bad idea!

Mr. Screens’ take: I'm amazed at TikTok's algorithm-driven feed (Algo TV) and frightened of my children using it. Would I feel the same if geopolitical conditions were different?  Maybe, but just like Instagram, the most damning evidence comes from their own research.

BTW: See what former employees say if you don’t believe their internal research.

PSA: China places a 40-minute daily limit on their version of TikTok (Douyin) for teens.  American teens spend 90 minutes (125% more) on TikTok daily.  

Must read: TikTok executives know about app’s effect on teens, lawsuit documents allege

Quote from Bobby Allyn, Sylvia Goodman, and Dara Kerr - Reporters @ The Associated Press:
Another internal document found that the company was aware its many features designed to keep young people on the app led to a constant and irresistible urge to keep opening the app.

TikTok’s own research states that “compulsive usage correlates with a slew of negative mental health effects like loss of analytical skills, memory formation, contextual thinking, conversational depth, empathy, and increased anxiety,” according to the suit.

In addition, the documents show that TikTok was aware that “compulsive usage also interferes with essential personal responsibilities like sufficient sleep, work/school responsibilities, and connecting with loved ones.”

Another banger from this story:
TikTok discovered “a significant” number of adults direct messaging underage TikTokkers about stripping live on the platform.

As part of this internal probe, TikTok officials found that in just one month, 1 million “gifts” were sent to kids engaged in “transactional” behavior.

In an understated assessment, one TikTok official concluded: “[O]ne of our key discoveries during this project that has turned into a major challenge with Live business is that the content that gets the highest engagement may not be the content we want on our platform.”