How Social Media Hooks Children?

Context:

Meta Platforms agreed to pay up to $17.1 billion to several U.S. states over allegations involving addictive platform design and child privacy.
The settlement requires changes to Facebook and Instagram for users under 18 in participating U.S. jurisdictions.
India is examining similar measures, including age-based restrictions, usage limits and stronger parental consent.
The key shift is from relying only on parents and voluntary safety tools to making platforms accountable for product design.

Features such as endless scrolling, recommendation algorithms, notifications, autoplay and visible likes/views are designed to maximise engagement.
Such features can contribute to anxiety, depression, loneliness, low self-esteem and sleep problems among adolescents.
A 2024 meta-analysis of 143 studies involving over one million adolescents found greater social-media engagement associated with higher anxiety and depression.
Reducing social-media use has also been associated with improvements in mental health, sleep and loneliness.

Two-hour daily limit across Facebook and Instagram for under-18 users; parents can modify the limit.
Midnight–6 a.m. access restrictions and muted notifications during night and school hours.
Non-personalised feed option.
Likes and reactions hidden by default.
Restrictions on cosmetic-procedure and extreme-makeup filters.
Stronger age assurance and parental controls.
Prompts after 15 minutes of continuous scrolling.
An independent auditor will assess compliance for five years.

The settlement highlights that platform architecture itself can influence user behaviour, so responsibility cannot rest entirely on children and parents.
India is considering graded, age-based restrictions for children's social-media use.
However, simply reducing screen time may not be sufficient; regulators must examine what recommendation algorithms show children and how they drive continued engagement.
Effective regulation should therefore focus on default safeguards, algorithmic accountability, independent research access and measurable health outcomes rather than merely checking whether safety features exist.