Putting child safety over profit margins: the case for disconnecting kids from addictive content feeds online.

We currently live, work, and socialize in an increasingly digital world. According to the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, children ages 8-18 spend, on average, 7.5 hours each day looking at a screen. Entertainment, shopping, studying, and much more are all readily available online, and it is becoming increasingly difficult to live a screen-free life in the age of remote work and online schooling. But an increasingly online world is not without consequences, especially for children.  

In a 2025 study, researchers found that nearly a third of adolescents had “increasing addictive use trajectories” for social media, and that this behavior was associated with increased risk of suicidal behaviors. Suicide is the third leading cause of death for adolescents nationally, and the second leading cause in Washington state. The overwhelming consensus among researchers is that increased use of social media is associated with increased symptoms of anxiety, depression, and “psychological distress.”

This issue is exacerbated by the design principles used by tech companies to incentivize users to spend as much time as possible on their platforms. Large corporations spend a lot of money, and hire very skilled people, to craft experiences that target your brain’s anatomy in such a way that limiting your own engagement is difficult. A 2019 analysis identified six tools companies use to keep you scrolling longer:

1. Endless scrolling: If there are no gaps between pieces of media, you are less likely to put down your phone, keeping you engaged longer.

2. Endowment effect: The more time you invest in a platform, the harder it is for you to detach from it.

3. Social pressure: Indicators that content has been viewed or a message has been read put pressure on users to respond quickly, creating a social dynamic that disincentivizes logging off.

4. Show users what they like: Your main feed on a platform will only show you things it thinks you want to see, keeping your attention and making it easy to scroll for hours.  

5. Social comparison and reward: Likes, shares, views, and other metrics of engagement give users something to chase and incentivizes them to post more in pursuit of “climbing” the social media engagement ladder.

6. Zeĭgarnik effect/Ovsiankina effect: Most common in mobile games, these effects refer to the remembering of tasks yet to be completed and the likelihood of returning to finish them. Users may be shown a metaphorical “carrot” to chase, ensuring that when they do close out of an app, they remember to log back in later.

The global social media industry is worth over $2 trillion, so it is no wonder that we as individuals have a hard time competing with their intentionally addictive design efforts. The more time we spend on social media platforms, the more money these companies make, meaning we cannot afford to wait for them to create a safe experience for our kids for us. Their profit margins rely on a design strategies that cause anxiety and depression in kids.

What can we do to prevent this?

While individuals and communities may currently have limited options to directly regulate social media companies, meaningful action is still possible. Across the country and our state, steps have been taken at the local level to limit phone use among kids, including some schools and districts outright banning phones during the school day. Some districts saw positive effects almost immediately, with one middle school in Seattle reporting fewer disciplinary issues and classroom disruptions during their first year as a phone-free school. Preliminary results are inconclusive but seem to suggest that limited phone use while at school has been beneficial for everybody involved.

But phone-free schools are not the be-all and end-all to protecting kids from the harmful effects of problematic social media use. After all, there’s nothing stopping kids from using their phones outside of school, such as at a friend’s house or during the summer. A system-level solution is needed. Herein lies the opportunity for advocates to push for change.

House Bill 1834 and Senate Bill 5708 remain a top priority for Children’s Alliance. This legislation was developed in collaboration with the Washington Attorney General’s Office and our partners in the Legislature, Representative Lisa Callan and Senator Noel Frame and aims to guarantee safety for children and youth on social media, regardless of whether their school enacts a phone ban.

Here is what our bill does:

• Require companies operating digital media platforms to reasonably and safely identify when a user is a minor.

• Prohibit companies from delivering addictive feeds to minors.

• Prohibit companies from sending push notifications to minors at night or during the school day.

• Improve access to tools and settings that give kids and parents the opportunity to customize their experience on social media to be safe and private.

Click here to view a one-pager about the bill.

If you or someone you know is interested in supporting Children’s Alliance’s work to ensure children and youth are safe online, then please contact becca@childrensalliance.org or max@childrensalliance.org. We are especially interested in connecting with any of the following groups:

1. Children and youth.

2. Parents and caregivers.

3. Educators and school staff.

4. Behavioral health and health care providers.

5. Academics and researchers.

6. Current and former tech workers.

Stakeholder voices are critical to the success of any community-informed advocacy effort. We invite you to advocate alongside us as we make it inescapably clear to legislators that the health and safety of kids are non-negotiable.