Calls Are Growing to Keep Kids Safer Online. What Actually Works?

More and more people are worried about how social media affects children. Parents, schools, and governments have all tried different ways to keep kids safer online. Now, researchers at the University of California at San Francisco looked at the best available science to find out which approaches really make a difference. Their findings were published Thursday in a medical journal called JAMA Network Open.

The research team, led by Dr. Jason Nagata, reviewed 39 studies. They looked at six common strategies: warning labels on social media, age-checking tools, parental consent and monitoring, school phone rules, platform design changes, and rules about fake or harmful images. Nagata is a professor of pediatrics, which means he studies the health of children and teens. He said the science is still catching up to how fast technology changes.

One clear finding was that parental involvement matters a lot. When parents talk to their kids about what they do online and pay attention to their social media use, kids are less likely to develop unhealthy habits. Nagata said parents don't need to be strict or scary about it — just curious and open. 'Having curiosity, asking about their kids' online experiences, being open to discussing content, just having regular conversations, that really helps,' he said.

School rules about phones showed mixed results. Most studies found that banning phones during school did reduce how much students used them in class. However, the evidence that phone bans improved grades or mental health was not as clear. Nagata noted that many schools have only recently started these policies, so researchers need more time to gather data and draw stronger conclusions.

Warning labels on social media platforms are another idea being considered. The hope is that labels would make teens think twice before spending too much time on apps. But there is a risk: if a warning makes something seem exciting or forbidden, it could actually make teens more curious and more likely to use it. This is similar to how a 'Do Not Touch' sign sometimes makes people want to touch something even more.

Age verification — making sure users are old enough to be on a platform — is tricky too. Most major social media platforms say users must be at least 13 years old. Even so, a previous study found that 64 percent of 11- and 12-year-olds said they used social media anyway, and many had about three accounts each. Newer methods like using government IDs, facial recognition, or artificial intelligence could help check ages more accurately, but these tools also raise concerns about privacy.

Age verification is also central to a huge recent legal settlement involving Meta, the company that owns Facebook and Instagram. Meta agreed to pay up to $17.1 billion to settle lawsuits from 47 states and other U.S. territories. Those lawsuits claimed that Meta's platforms were addictive and harmful to kids. As part of the deal, Meta agreed to limit use to two hours per day for users under 18, block the apps from midnight to 6 a.m., and turn off notifications during school hours.

Meta also agreed to change certain design features that many experts say are built to keep users scrolling for as long as possible. These include removing infinite scrolling, changing how 'likes' are shown, and adjusting certain image filters for younger users. Nagata said these design changes may be the most promising of all the strategies discussed in the review.

However, Nagata also pointed out that no one has ever tried making changes this big on this many platforms at the same time. Scientists will also find it difficult to figure out which specific change helped the most, since everything is happening at once. Still, Nagata said action is needed now, even if more research is on the way. 'Some of these sweeping design changes could be a game changer,' he said. 'But we don't know for sure, and it's important that we remain vigilant.'