Big Tech, Parents, Schools, or Leave the Kids Alone? Comparing State Policy Efforts With Evidence From Teens

• In Event: Thursday Roundtable Session 12:40 pm
  In Roundtable Session: Implementation of State-Level Policy (Table 21)

Abstract

Social media tools have become ubiquitous in the 21st century to facilitate networking, market activities, and learning. Since its emergence, there have been concerns about social media’s impact on adolescents. Here, we present a typology of current state policy efforts to regulate teen social media use, identifying their approaches and policy levers. We then compare these to the narratives of 27 teenagers who were interviewed and kept video diaries. We find that the teens developed strategies and norms for managing their social media use. Our study suggests that policy efforts to limit social media through Big Tech and parents only go so far. State efforts to provide students with education about its affordances and perils would be a better investment.

Authors

• Stacey A. Rutledge, Florida State University

• Stephen Bunn, Florida State University

• Kevin Ganus, Florida State University

• Seungbae Kim, Florida State University

• Vanessa Dennen, Florida State University