Social media bans for minors spread as early data shows widespread workarounds

Meta, YouTube settlements exceed $17 billion over youth safety claims

More than 20 countries have moved to limit minors’ access to social media, led by a December 2025 Australian law on children under 16 and a similar prohibition in the United Kingdom shortly after. The proposed and enacted bans around the world vary in terms of age restriction, parental consent rules and age verification methods, according to Lightman’s commentary, originally published in The Conversation under a Creative Commons license and republished by UPI. The bans typically cover a mix of Snapchat, YouTube, TikTok, Instagram, Facebook and X, though the precise list varies by jurisdiction.

The push for age-based restrictions has been accompanied by major legal action against the platforms themselves. Since March, YouTube and Meta, the parent company of Instagram and Facebook, have paid out or settled more than $17 billion in lawsuits alleging that the companies deliberately designed their platforms to hook children and misled the public about safety and privacy. The settlements include an August 2026 agreement in which Meta settled with a group of states for $17 billion, with portions allocated to state-based mental health infrastructure, school and community programs, and public health campaigns.

Governments pursuing bans cite a range of motivations. “These bans aren’t necessarily for mental health reasons only — some are motivated by political concerns about foreign-owned platforms, and others aim to protect young people’s privacy,” Lightman wrote. Nearly every government banning social media for young people does, however, cite mental health among its reasons.

The mental health argument gained traction with the 2024 publication of “The Anxious Generation” by Jonathan Haidt, who argues that social media disrupts social and neurological development, contributing to rising anxiety and depression through sleep loss, fragmented attention, addiction, loneliness, social comparison and perfectionism. Lightman cited a 2026 study reporting that young people between 14 and 20 are more than 100% more likely to experience mental illness than 14- to 20-year-olds 50 years ago, and noted estimates that, in 2021, 20.5% of young people globally reported elevated anxiety symptoms and 25.2% of youth reported elevated depression symptoms. He and other researchers pointed to COVID-19 pandemic disruptions and expanded screening as additional contributing factors.

Early evidence on Australia’s ban, the first to take effect, points to widespread circumvention. The Australian safety commissioner, charged with enforcing the law, issued a compliance update showing 7 in 10 children who held accounts on restricted platforms remained on those platforms, and that more than 80% of Australian teens ages 10 to 15 still use social media frequently. Early evidence from the ban also shows roughly 61% of children ages 12 to 15 continue accessing the platforms through false IDs, altered appearances or virtual private networks, despite millions of accounts being disabled.

Minors have found ways around age-verification systems that require platforms to estimate user age. Some have bypassed biometric age estimation using photo manipulation software, by substituting celebrity photos, by altering their appearance through makeup, or by enlisting older friends and parents to pass selfie tests. Others have registered with manipulated birth years or relied on existing adult-verified accounts managed by family members. U.K. lawmakers are debating whether to restrict consumer VPN access in response. Australia is currently seeking to raise fines on platforms that fail to comply with the country’s requirements.

The age-verification methods, whether deployed by governments or platforms, depend on collecting sensitive data, creating privacy trade-offs, Lightman noted. Some policymakers have raised concerns that outright bans could push young users toward less-regulated online spaces that carry greater risks.

In light of these concerns, some researchers argue that bans on social media platforms are like putting an age restriction on buying alcohol or cigarettes, Lightman wrote. But unlike those addictive and potentially harmful substances, there are benefits to social media, especially for teens who feel disconnected from their local communities and want to build relationships with others who feel similarly. Social media platforms allow for global connectivity and community-building with like-minded groups, and they also provide a place for self-expression and civic engagement. A Pew survey of U.S. teens found that 80% said social media helps them stay connected to what is happening in their friends’ lives.

Even as states and countries are moving to ban young people from social media, there isn’t clear evidence that spending time on these platforms is the main cause of their mental health problems, Lightman wrote.

One comparison with tobacco holds up more directly than the age-restriction analogy: the question of how to direct money from lawsuit settlements, according to the commentary. In 1998, states settled a lawsuit against the major tobacco companies to recover smoking-related healthcare costs, with part of the settlement allocated to programs aimed at reducing youth smoking. In 2026, total state funding for those programs amounts to just 3.4% of the $21.7 billion in revenue states will collect from tobacco settlement payments and tobacco taxes. Some money from the August 2026 Meta settlement is similarly slated for state-based programs, but there is no oversight or direction as to how states should use the funds, nor is there a mechanism to report how that money has improved kids’ mental health care, safety and well-being.

The current list of countries pursuing restrictions includes Greece, the United Arab Emirates and Canada, where the government has been advancing its own proposal, with bans varying by age threshold, parental consent rules and age-verification approach. Lightman recommended that governments pursue “safety by default” standards — pre-activating the highest security and privacy options on platforms used by minors, which would also place limits on the manipulation, algorithmic restraint and other addictive mechanisms that may lead to psychological harm — alongside digital literacy education, screen-free time and easier access to mental health support for families seeing signs of problem use. He also pointed to United Nations guidance calling for young people to participate in conversations about online rules and platform design.