Does U.S. Social Media Legislation Protect Youth Mental Health?: A Thematic Content Analysis of State-Level Policies

Background/Purpose: Since 2012, the prevalence of mental health challenges among youth in the United States (U.S.) has worsened significantly. This public health emergency has coincided with the expansion of social media–a popular tool for communication, expression, and connection. While social media can foster positive interactions and broaden community networks, its use has been linked to negative mental health outcomes for youth. Research on social media’s role in shaping mental health has focused on inter- and intra-personal mechanisms, but less is known about the broader systematic and structural pathways shaping this relationship. Adolescence–a critical period of cognitive, social, and emotional development– represents a time of heightened vulnerability to influences like social comparison, stress, and social isolation. Emerging research suggests that daily social media use during this developmental period may shape neurological patterns that influence one’s processing of social rewards and punishments, potentially contributing to long-term mental health challenges. Given these vulnerabilities, youth represent a distinct group to be considered in the context of policy decisions related to social media. This study uses a content analysis of U.S. policy texts that target social media use and youth mental health, aiming to examine systemic approaches that address the growing youth mental health crisis.

Methods: Data includes state-level policies across 36 U.S. states and Puerto Rico retrieved from congress.gov in November 2024 (N= 179). Policy texts were screened for inclusion and exclusion into the final analytic sample. Policies were included in the analytic sample if they included explicit efforts to protect youth mental health. No restrictions were placed on the policy status (e.g., enacted, failed, or pending). A preliminary review of 30% of the policies (N=53) resulted in 20 policies that met the inclusion criteria. Thematic coding was used to identify policy targets through an inductive qualitative analysis of the policy texts. Data was coded independently by two research team members using consensus coding methods.

Results: Preliminary findings revealed 17 themes organized into three categories: Access, Exposure, and Literacy. The access category included parental approval and age restrictions as key themes. The exposure category included pornography, advertising, and targeted algorithms as key themes. Finally, the literacy category included media literacy and safe use as key themes. Themes were integrated into an existing 'Pluralistic Framework to Conceptualize Social Media Use' (Hamati, 2024) to include policies that create the context for youth mental health through social media use.

Conclusions/Implications: Youth mental health continues to be a public health priority. Upstream policy interventions offer a critical avenue for change. Study findings underscore the importance of multi-level interventions that span across a youth’s ecology, including access restrictions (age verification, parental approval, school internet bans for social media sites), social media education (media literacy, digital citizenship, school curriculum modules), and content sanctions (changes to/removal of targeted algorithms, prohibitions on material that is sexually explicit or promotes self-harm or violence). Findings also highlight the need for a systems-level policy framework that guides our understanding of the macro-level mechanisms that link social media use to youth mental health outcomes.