Social media platforms made billions of dollars in advertising revenue from children under the age of 18 in 2022, according to research.
Collectively, Facebook, Instagram, Snapchat, TikTok, X, and YouTube netted almost US$11 billion in the US over the year this way, Harvard researchers revealed on Thursday.
This is in spite of growing pressure on such platforms to tighten protections for children in a bid to prevent them from being exposed to harmful and other content which could impact mental health.
Some US$8.6 billion worth of the sites’ advertising revenue came from children between the ages of 13 and 17.
As much as US$2.1 billion was generated from children under the age of 12, meanwhile.
“As concerns about youth mental health grow, more and more policymakers are trying to introduce legislation to curtail social media platform practices that may drive depression, anxiety, and disordered eating in young people,” senior author Bryn Austin commented.
“Although social media platforms may claim that they can self-regulate their practices to reduce the harms to young people, they have yet to do so.
“Our study suggests they have overwhelming financial incentives to continue to delay taking meaningful steps to protect children.”
Snapchat, which is owned by Snap Inc (NYSE:SNAP), derived 41% of its advertising revenue from users aged 18 and under in 2022, researchers said.
ByteDance-owned TikTok saw 35% of its advertising revenue come from children, followed by Alphabet Inc (NASDAQ:GOOG)’s YouTube at 27%.