Gen Z voters oppose social media limits, new study finds

AMERICAN teens are generally against the idea of regulations that would place restrictions on their use of social media platforms, despite knowing the potential harms to mental and physical health, according to a survey of 430 first-time voters.

A study designed by non-profit Helena found that more than 60 per cent of new voters oppose requiring kids under age 16 to seek parental consent to use social media. More than 85 per cent of young people think there should be no time limits on when they can receive social media notifications, such as at night or during school hours.

Members of Generation Z – young people between the ages of 12 and 27 – are some of the most active users on social media services such as Meta Platforms’s Instagram, ByteDance’s TikTok and Snap’s Snapchat. Parents, lawmakers, regulators and child safety advocates have spent years pushing for rules they say will ease the risks posed by heavy use of these services. But those just reaching voting age are starting to have more influence over who represents them, and the policies that they advance – including a crackdown on social media use.

Since the 2022 midterms, about eight million members of Gen Z have joined the electorate, a demographic shift that is “unprecedented”, said Henry Elkus, founder and chief executive officer of Helena, which works on issues such as climate change, disease prevention and civic engagement. By 2028, this voting cohort will make up nearly 25 per cent of the electorate, meaning their voices on social and political issues could have a real impact on election outcomes.

“There hasn’t yet been a technological update as powerful as the internet, AI (artificial intelligence), social media that can affect electoral politics,” said Elkus, whose organisation helped design the study. “And this demographic represents the first generation that is native to that movement.”

To understand how Gen Z voters thought about a range of issues, researchers from five organisations polled a group of 430 first-time voters that represented Americans from all over the country. The pollsters asked about subjects ranging from AI and social media to mental health. The project, called America in One Room: The Youth Vote, is the fourth in a series of experiments led by Helena, in collaboration with leading universities, civic engagement organisations and research groups.

Gen Z is often considered the first generation that grew up with social media. Facebook was created in 2004, Instagram launched in 2010, Snapchat in 2011, and current Gen Z favourite TikTok in 2016. But the platforms have long been criticised for their impacts on teen mental health and drug use, and their failure to root out online harassment, extortion and sexual predators. The US Senate last month passed a bill called the Kids Online Safety Act that would require social media companies to make their platforms safer for kids. Officials across the country have proposed other restrictions, including in Florida, where some users under 16 may soon need parental permission to use social media.

Earlier this year, the CEOs of TikTok, X, Meta, Discord and Snap testified before Congress about their efforts to keep young users safe.

“I think the concerning parts are definitely the mental health aspect. But also just the fact that when you are young, you are very influenced,” said Rebekah Bushmire, an America in One Room participant and first-time voter from Peachtree City, Georgia. She said she’s been using Instagram, TikTok and Snapchat since middle school. “There comes a point where you get very obsessed and addicted to social media and that’s a real problem.”

But despite understanding the possible negative impacts, young people are not necessarily in favour of government restrictions on social media use. Of four proposals related to social media restrictions, such as age requirements, time limits or digital literacy training, none of them received majority support from participants.

“I think that’s a decision for the parents,” Bushmire said. It sets a “weird precedent” to have national rules on social media use, she said, although she is in favour of some restrictions.

The pushback against social media regulations should not be seen as an endorsement of the companies behind the products, said Nathanael Fast, director of the Neely Center for Ethical Leadership and Decision Making at the University of Southern California’s Marshall School of Business, and a partner in the experiment. “These positions are not because students trust social media companies,” he said, adding that less than 10 per cent of first-time voters said they trust the companies to do the right thing.

Gen Z may not want to give up social media because it can be a “lifeline” for young people who need support outside their home or school communities, he said.

To conduct the experiment, researchers selected participants from a random sample of 30,000 high school students. The sample was designed to be representative based on US census data. First-time voters were then invited to Washington, where they had discussions and answered questions about their perspectives on a variety of issues.

America in One Room is a collaboration of Close Up Foundation, the Deliberative Democracy Lab at Stanford University, the Generation Lab, Helena, and USC Marshall’s Neely Center. BLOOMBERG