New movements in social media platforms: regulation of teen accounts

By John Park

“Monesting Misery.” Molly Russell has accused the world's biggest social platforms after investigation of harmful online content contributed to the 14-year-old’s death. 14 year old innocent girl Molly Ressell was killed by a social media’s harmful content in November 2017. Different social media platforms have presented numerous policies in order to address such approachability of abusive contents on social media; the policies, however, will have to address the ongoing dilemma between freedom of speech and pertinence of contents to the viewers. As a resolution, social media platforms such as Facebook/Instagram are adding a new teen account in order to regulate and protect the under age teenagers from unwanted harmful contents. 

In the wake of Molly Russell’s death, social media platforms such as Meta have introduced a series of policy changes aimed at minimizing the exposure of teens to harmful content. For instance, Meta has released new “teen account” settings in regions such as the U.S, UK, Australia, and Canada to restrict the type of contents adolescents can see, limit screen time, and make underage accounts private by default (Milmo, 2024). Such policies aim to give parents and adolescent users more control over their online experiences. 

The U.S has invested much more time and effort in restricting the social media access of the younger generation. In New York, a landmark bill passed in 2024 specially aims to restrict social media usage for children under 13, which mandates parental consent for account creation and limiting exposure to targeted advertising (Zahn 2024). This bill represents a significant shift towards governmental oversight, yet it also raises the concerns of the public as to if the restriction of texting is overly restrictive to gen-Z children. 

Some still argue that the fundamental purpose of social media is to grant one’s freedom of speech in a much more accessible space, and that adolescents should not be an exception for such societal advantage. Teenagers complain: "A lot of my social interaction happens on social media … like, my whole life revolves around it," Juniper Galvani, a 17-year-old student from Vermont” (Caturano, Katz, Lippiello, Schulze, Abramoff, 2024). 

As stated above, social media companies and the federal government have worked hard to eliminate sensitive/abusive contents that are accessible on various social media platforms. While the policies may be effective in an ephemeral time period, it is essential to build permanent policies that can reduce the social media influence on the current generation of children. It is also important to trace down to the roots of the problem caused by social media, and fundamentally revise how the “anonymity” of social media posts can be abused to misdirect the general public in every aspect of our life. I believe that in the vast pool of information and entertainment within the internet, not all contents are useful and harmless. As mentioned above, governments and companies have to keep closer boundaries with teenagers and protect them from sensitive content across the internet. 

ABC News, ABC News Network, abcnews.go.com/Business/landmark-new-york-bill-restrict-social-media-children/story?id=110809032. Accessed 1 Nov. 2024.

ABC News, ABC News Network, abcnews.go.com/Technology/generation-swipe-new-era-social-media-regulation-means/story?id=110480513. Accessed 1 Nov. 2024.

“Instagram to Automatically Put Teens into Private Accounts with Increased Restrictions and Parental Controls.” NBCNews.Com, NBCUniversal News Group, 18 Sept. 2024, www.nbcnews.com/tech/instagram-meta-teens-private-accounts-increased-restrictions-rcna171294.

“Meta to Put Under-18 Instagram Users into New ‘Teen Accounts.’” The Guardian, Guardian News and Media, 17 Sept. 2024, www.theguardian.com/technology/2024/sep/17/meta-instagram-facebook-teen-accounts-social-media-ban-australia.