(CN) – Countries around the world are moving towards block teenagers from social media amid growing fears about young people’s mental health, but researchers say there is little evidence that bans actually improve well-being.
Australia banned social media accounts for children under 16 in December 2025, and countries such as France, Denmark, Canada and the United Kingdom are considering similar restrictions.
Supporters of the measures argue that research has linked social media use to anxiety, depression and other mental health problems among teenagers.
But researchers in the new review of experimental studies published Thursday in Frontiers in Developmental Psychology found little direct evidence that social media bans improve adolescent well-being.
They say no experimental studies have tested the effects of social media restrictions on children under 16, the group most often targeted by bans.
Monika Neff Lind, of the University of California, Irvine and co-author of the study, said she would welcome strong evidence showing that bans improve well-being, but researchers have not found that evidence.
“As a clinical psychologist and parent, I would be thrilled if this were true, but it’s not,” Lind said in a press release.
The review looked at experiments in which participants were instructed to reduce or stop using social media while researchers tracked changes in well-being.
In those studies, participants are usually divided into groups, with one limiting social media use and another continuing normal use for comparison.
The researchers found no experiments involving children under 16 years of age. Studies involving adults also yielded mixed results, with roughly 40% showing either no improvement or harmful effects such as increased loneliness and lower life satisfaction after limiting social media use, according to the analysis.
“Social media use is one of the least influential factors in healthy adolescent development,” Lind wrote in an email.
The study pushes back against increasingly common claims by politicians that science clearly supports banning social media for young people.
French President Emmanuel Macron has said banning social media for children under 15 is “what scientists recommend”, while US Senator Brian Schatz, sponsor of the Social Media for Children Act, has argued that reducing social media exposure improves mental health.
Researchers say the evidence is far less conclusive than many policymakers suggest.
They also warned that enforcing social media bans could create new problems, especially for marginalized groups. Technologies used to estimate age from uploaded selfies, for example, may be less accurate for young faces and people of color, the analysis said.
The restrictions may also cut off teenagers from important social connections and information, the researchers wrote, as schools, clubs and youth organizations increasingly rely on social media to communicate with students.
Some teens may also find ways to circumvent restrictions by creating fake adult accounts or using platforms anonymously, potentially bypassing parental controls and safety settings designed for younger users.
“The vast majority of young people oppose youth bans on social media, and teenagers are known for their opposition to top-down edicts that ignore their needs,” Lind said. “Expect more conflict between teens and caregivers, not less.”
The researchers argued that governments should more carefully assess the impact of social media bans before expanding them further.
Australian officials reported that roughly 70% of social media accounts belonging to users under 16 remained active three months after the country’s ban went into effect, according to the analysis.
Future evaluations, the researchers wrote, should examine whether bans change online behavior and should measure both positive well-being and mental health outcomes using multiple data sources, including adolescent reports, caregivers, and behavioral data.
Instead of focusing primarily on restricting access to social media, Lind said policymakers should invest more in broader support for teens.
“Instead, policymakers should focus on supporting young people by pouring resources into key factors that support adolescent well-being, such as healthy, happy caregivers and meaningful opportunities to contribute to their communities,” Lind said. “Teenagers feel better when they feel that what they do matters.”
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