Study reveals that Facebook and Instagram, along with other social media companies, earned $11 billion in advertising revenue from minors in the US.
A recent study conducted by the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health revealed that social media companies earned more than $11 billion in advertising revenue from minors in the United States last year. The researchers argue that this highlights the necessity for government intervention in regulating social media, as these companies have not effectively implemented self-regulation measures to protect children. They suggest that implementing regulations and demanding more transparency from tech companies could mitigate the negative impact on youth mental health and prevent harmful advertising practices that specifically target children and teenagers.
For the revenue figure, the researchers estimated the number of users under the age of 18 on Facebook, Instagram, Snapchat, TikTok, X (formerly Twitter) and YouTube in 2022, based on demographic data from the US Census and research data from Common Sense Media. and Pew Research. They then used data from research firm eMarketer (now called Insider Intelligence) and Qustodio, a parental control app, to estimate each platform’s US ad revenue in 2022 and the amount of time children spent per day on each platform. The researchers then said they built a simulation model using the data to estimate how much ad revenue the platforms earned from minors in the United States.
Researchers and lawmakers have long focused on the negative effects of social media platforms, whose personally tailored algorithms can drive children to overuse. This year, lawmakers in states like New York and Utah introduced or passed legislation that would limit social media use among children, citing harm to young people’s mental health and other concerns.
Meta, which owns Instagram and Facebook, has also been sued in dozens of states for allegedly contributing to the mental health crisis.
“While social media platforms may claim they can self-regulate their practices to reduce harm to young people, they have yet to do so, and our research suggests they have huge financial incentives to continue delaying meaningful action to protect children,” said Bryn Austin, professor at Harvard’s Department of Social and Behavioral Sciences and senior author of the study.
The platforms themselves do not disclose how much money they earn from minors.
Social media platforms are not the first to advertise to children, and parents and experts have long expressed concern about marketing to children online, on television and even in schools. However, online ads can be particularly insidious because they can be targeted at children and because the line between ads and the content children are looking for is often blurred.
In its 2020 policy paper, the American Academy of Pediatrics said children are “uniquely vulnerable to the persuasive effects of advertising due to immature critical skills and impulse inhibition.”
“School-aged children and teenagers may recognize advertising, but are often unable to resist it when embedded in trusted social networks, encouraged by celebrity influencers, or next to personalized content,” the paper noted.
As concerns grow about social media and children’s mental health, the Federal Trade Commission earlier this month proposed sweeping changes to a decades-old law that regulates how online companies can track and advertise to children. The proposed changes include disabling targeted ads for under 13s by default and limiting push notifications.
According to a Harvard study, YouTube received the most advertising revenue from users under 12 ($959.1 million), followed by Instagram ($801.1 million) and Facebook ($137.2 million).
Meanwhile, Instagram received the most ad revenue from users aged 13-17 ($4 billion), followed by TikTok ($2 billion) and YouTube ($1.2 billion).
The researchers also estimated that Snapchat received the largest share of its 2022 ad revenue from users under 18 (41%), followed by TikTok (35%), YouTube (27%) and Instagram (16%).
