Young people today interact in a wide range of digital environments. Those born in the early to mid-2000s are a voice generation, preferring to send short voice messages over social media platforms rather than text messages or e‑mails like their parents. They have grown up in the social media age, and chatting on social media plays a central role in how they communicate online and access information about the world around them. Despite efforts by social scientists and other researchers, the literature on the impacts of social media use on academic outcomes and skills of young people is ambiguous. This makes the path forward harder to navigate for those that wish to nurture and protect young people.
Despite these difficulties, policymakers are pursuing ways to help young people benefit from the many opportunities of social media. At the same time, they strive to protect young people against the related risks of social media and to safeguard rights, including freedom of expression and privacy, as well as innovation and fair competition. This paper considers two approaches – digital device bans in schools; and online safety policies, regulations and practices. However, other policies, such as strengthening young people’s social media literacy from an early age, are also important.1 These efforts are recent, and peer learning on how to avoid implementation challenges is needed. As digital technologies evolve and societies adapt, more changes on the horizon for young people are certain. The parents, educators and policymakers that seek to keep them happy and safe need to be creative and ready to adapt.
Indeed, changes are already apparent. The number of active social media users grew by about 5% between 2024 and 2025 to 5.66 billion worldwide (We Are Social, 2025[89]). However, evidence suggests that time spent on social media has been falling since 2022 across all age groups. Meanwhile, the nature of social media itself has been changing (Burn-Murdoch, 2025[90]). Social media began as an online space to easily share updates on one’s life with friends and family. However, from a space to communicate with friends and family in real time, social media has become increasingly populated with curated videos of influencers unboxing toys, playing video games and promoting brands. It is now poised to become a place where AI-generated videos are uploaded to provide entertainment (Tech Crunch, 2025[91]; Tech Crunch, 2025[92]).
The challenge for society is to continuously seek to understand the rapidly changing social media landscape and how it affects young people today and in the future. As those born in the early to mid-2000s reach adulthood, they will be well placed to help the generations that come next in navigating the opportunities and risks of social media for our youth. Until then, parents, educators, policymakers and young people themselves must continue experimenting with approaches to help ensure that social media brings more upsides than downsides for young people today.