Children in the grip of algorithms: Meta in court, Austria draws the age limit

Meta is facing trial in California. Twenty-nine US states accuse the company of intentionally designing Instagram and Facebook to be addictive for children. If Meta loses, it faces billions in penalties and deep interventions in its business model. Research provides arguments for the plaintiffs: large long-term studies show that excessive use among children increases depression, concentration problems, sleep deprivation, and loneliness. An increasing number of states are drawing conclusions from this and setting a minimum age for social media. A pioneer in the EU is Austria: starting in 2027, the government aims to protect children under 14 and is planning a social media ban.

Possible fine of up to $1.4 trillion for Meta

Since August 18, a jury in Oakland has been deliberating on whether Meta has intentionally addicted children. In her opening statement, California Deputy Attorney General Megan O'Neill accused the company of having exploited, „how their brains work“. Four states – California, Colorado, Kentucky and New Jersey – are leading the process on behalf of 29 plaintiffs.

It is not about individual contents, but about the fundamental design of the appsInfinite scrolling, constant notifications, and counting likes. The process is supposed to take up to seven weeks. Mark Zuckerberg is also expected to testify. The potential fine of up to $1.4 trillion has Already Meta described as „completely detached from any alleged violation“.

In addition to the fine, the plaintiffs are demanding binding changes to the platforms. If they win, Meta would have to reach a settlement with all the plaintiff states. And in some states there have already been rulings: In March, a jury in New Mexico Meta guilty of having deceived and exploited children. In Los Angeles, a 20-year-old six million dollars, because Instagram and YouTube had made them addicted as children.

That social media harms children is long no longer just an accusation by public prosecutors. Research has clearly stepped up in recent years. Four problems appear particularly often in the studies.

Social media can worsen depressive symptoms

Researchers long debated whether sad children scroll more or whether scrolling makes them sad. The largest US long-term study on youth development, the ABCD Study, provides a clear answer. Nearly 12,000 children were followed starting at the age of nine over a period of three years.

The result: When a child spent more time on social media, they showed significantly more depressive symptoms one year later. Conversely, the reverse was not true. A depressive phase did not lead to a child spending more time on the platforms afterward. So, the usage comes first, then the depression.

On the other hand, abstaining has a measurably positive effect. In a Study with nearly 300 young adults depressive symptoms decreased by nearly a quarter after just one week without Instagram, TikTok, and similar platforms. Meta itself reached similar conclusions in an internal project in 2020, but never published them. This comes from court documents that are playing a role in current proceedings.

Intensive social media use impairs concentration

Whoever constantly receives new stimuli forgets how to stay with one thing. Researchers at the Karolinska Institute in Stockholm have more than 8,000 children aged ten to 14 accompanied. Children who spent a lot of time on social media had more difficulty concentrating over the years. Television and video games did not have this effect. The researchers also tested the reverse direction: children with attention problems did not reach for their phones more often. The effect runs from usage to symptom.

One new study in the journal JAMA Network Open confirms this. In years when adolescents were less able to control their usage, ADHD symptoms increased. Affected individuals also performed perform worse on memory and vocabulary tests. While the effect per child is small, projected onto an entire generation, it becomes a problem.

Smartphones in bed and endless scrolling lead to sleep deprivation

Children need more sleep than adults. But social media leads to sleep deprivation in two ways. First, does screen light slow down the sleep hormone melatonin. Secondly, the feed never stops. Many young people scroll deep into the night. The consequences show the next day: fatigue, irritability, poorer performance at school. Sleep deprivation is also itself a Risk factor for depression, especially in adolescence.

Here too, abstaining helps quickly. An ongoing study by the Ulm University Medical Center had young adults drastically reduce their usage. After a few weeks, they had Sleep problems almost halved. Study director Jörg Fegert has since been demanding a statutory age limit.

A thousand followers, no one to talk to: More and more young people affected by loneliness

Social media promises connection and often delivers the opposite. The World Health Organization surveyed nearly 280,000 young people in 44 countries. The proportion of those who no longer have their usage under control, rose from seven to eleven percent between 2018 and 2022. This group reports loneliness and poorer mental health more frequently.

Anyone who spends hours watching other people's highlights ends up feeling alone with their own everyday life. The time spent on the phone is also missing elsewhere: working out, meeting friends, or doing nothing at all.

Austria plans social media ban for children under 14 years old

Precisely because of these problems, a growing number of countries are setting a minimum age for social media. In December 2025, Australia became the first country to ban children under 16 from the platforms. France followed in July with a Ban for under-15s.

Great Britain, Denmark, Spain and Greece are working on their own laws. Austria is one of the pioneers in the EU: at the end of July, the federal government Bill for a ban under 14 years of age Sent for review. If everything goes according to plan, it will take effect from January 2027.

The Austrian approach focuses on corporations, not children. Affected are platforms with addiction-promoting featuresRecommendation algorithms, endless scrolling, reward systems, push notifications.

This affects TikTok, Instagram, YouTube and Snapchat, but not WhatsApp. Age is verified through a process in which the platform receives only a yes or no, no personal data. If a platform fails to comply, penalties threaten from up to six percent of global annual turnover.

FAQ: Frequently asked questions about the social media ban in Austria

These countries restrict social media for children

No law solves the problem alone. That is why Austria is also relying in parallel on a new school subject called „Media and Democracy.“ But the direction is clear. For a decade, the corporations promised to make their platforms safe themselves. The trial in Oakland is currently showing what came of that.

EU decides on chat control: your private pictures could end up with corporations & police