Social media companies made $11 billion in US ad revenue from minors, Harvard study finds

Social media companies collectively earned more than $11 billion in advertising revenue from minors in the U.S. last year, according to a study from the Harvard TH Chan School of Public Health published Wednesday.

The researchers say the findings show that there is a need for government regulation of social media because the companies that can make money from children using their platforms have failed to regulate themselves in a meaningful way. They note that such regulations, as well as greater transparency from tech companies, can help alleviate damage to young people's mental health and limit potentially harmful advertising practices that target children and adolescents.

To arrive at the turnover 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 population data from the US Census and survey 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 U.S. ad revenue in 2022 and the time children spent on each platform per day. Afterwards, the researchers said they built a simulation model using the data to estimate how much advertising revenue the platforms earned from minors in the US.

Researchers and lawmakers have long focused on the negative effects resulting from social media platforms, whose tailored algorithms can drive children to overuse. This year, lawmakers in states such as New York and Utah introduced or passed legislation that would curb social media use among children, citing damage to young people's mental health and other issues.

Meta, owner of Instagram and Facebook, is also being sued by 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 study suggests they have overwhelming financial incentives to continue taking meaningful steps to protect children Delay. 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 make from minors.

Social media platforms are not the first to market to children, and parents and experts have long raised concerns about marketing to children online, on television and even in schools. But online ads can be especially insidious because they can be targeted to children and because the line between ads and the content children seek is often blurred.

In a 2020 policy paper, the American Academy of Pediatrics said children are “particularly vulnerable to the persuasive effects of advertising due to their immature critical thinking skills and impulse inhibition.”

“School-age children and teens may be able to recognize advertising, but often cannot tolerate it when it is embedded in trusted social networks, encouraged by celebrity influencers, or served alongside personalized content,” the paper said.

As concerns about social media and children's mental health grow, the Federal Trade Commission earlier this month proposed sweeping changes to a decades-old law that governs how online companies can track and advertise to children. The proposed changes include disabling targeted ads for children under 13 by default and limiting push notifications.

According to the Harvard study, YouTube generated the largest ad revenue from users 12 and under ($959.1 million), followed by Instagram ($801.1 million) and Facebook ($137.2 million).

Instagram, meanwhile, generated the largest ad revenue from users aged 13 to 17 ($4 billion), followed by TikTok ($2 billion) and YouTube ($1.2 billion).

The researchers also estimate that Snapchat derived the largest share of its total ad revenue in 2022 from users under the age of 18 (41%), followed by TikTok (35%), YouTube (27%) and Instagram (16%).