A recent report from Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health revealed that social media corporations earned a total of $11 billion in advertising revenue from underage individuals in the United States last year. The study was published on Wednesday.

According to the researchers, the results indicate that social media requires government oversight as the companies have not adequately regulated themselves, despite profiting from child users. They suggest that implementing regulations and increasing transparency within tech companies could address negative effects on youth mental health and restrict advertising aimed at children and teens.

The researchers used data from various sources, including the U.S. Census and Common Sense Media and Pew Research surveys, to estimate the number of users under 18 on Facebook, Instagram, Snapchat, TikTok, X (formerly Twitter), and YouTube in 2022. They also gathered information from eMarketer, now Insider Intelligence, and Qustodio to determine each platform’s projected ad revenue and the amount of time children spend on each platform daily. Using this data, the researchers created a simulation model to calculate the ad revenue earned from minors on each platform in the U.S.

Scientists and government officials have been primarily concerned with the adverse consequences of social media platforms, which use personalized algorithms to encourage children to overuse them. In 2021, legislators in states such as New York and Utah proposed or approved laws aimed at limiting social media usage among minors, citing potential harm to their mental health and other issues.

The company Meta, which is the parent company of Instagram and Facebook, is currently facing lawsuits from multiple states for their supposed role in exacerbating the mental health crisis.

According to Bryn Austin, a professor at Harvard and senior author of the study, even though social media platforms claim they can regulate themselves to minimize harm to young people, they have not yet done so. The study indicates that these platforms have strong financial motives to postpone implementing significant measures to safeguard children.

The platforms do not publicly disclose their earnings from minors.

Marketing to children has been a concern for parents and experts for a long time, not just on social media platforms but also on television and in schools. However, online advertisements are particularly concerning due to their ability to target children and the blurred line between ads and the content they are seeking.

According to a policy paper published in 2020 by the American Academy of Pediatrics, children are particularly susceptible to the persuasive power of advertising due to their underdeveloped critical thinking abilities and lack of impulse control.

The paper stated that while school-aged children and teenagers may be aware of advertising, they often struggle to resist its influence when it is presented through familiar social networks, promoted by popular influencers, or placed alongside personalized content.

As worries about the impact of social media on children’s mental well-being continue to rise, the Federal Trade Commission recently put forth extensive revisions to a long-standing law that governs the ways in which online companies can monitor and market to kids. The suggested revisions entail automatically disabling targeted advertisements for children under 13 and restricting push notifications.

The Harvard study found that YouTube earned the most advertising revenue from users aged 12 and under ($959.1 million), followed by Instagram ($801.1 million) and Facebook ($137.2 million).

On the other hand, Instagram earned the most advertising earnings from individuals between the ages of 13 and 17, totaling $4 billion. This was followed by TikTok with $2 billion and YouTube with $1.2 billion.

According to the study, Snapchat generated the highest percentage of its total ad income in 2022 from individuals under 18 (41%), with TikTok (35%), YouTube (27%), and Instagram (16%) following closely behind.

Source: wral.com