Child Safety Features on Major Social Media Platforms Fail in Testing
Researchers testing 86 child safety features across TikTok, Instagram, Snapchat and YouTube found that only 40% worked as advertised and were realistically usable by children. The platforms enabled bullying, exploitation and eating disorder promotion. Meta faces lawsuits alleging intentional harm to young users.
What happened
Researchers at the Cybersafety Research Center, a joint initiative from New York University and Northeastern University, tested 86 youth safety features across TikTok, Instagram, Snapchat and YouTube.
Only 35 of 86 featuresโjust over 40%โsuccessfully met both criteria of working as described and being realistically findable and usable by children. Many safety tools appeared to be missing, broken, easily circumvented or difficult to find.
Examples included Snapchat allowing adults to send message requests to children they did not know, Instagram prompting teen accounts to connect with unknown men, and TikTok recommending searches to teen accounts such as 'how to pretend to eat your food' after promising to remove eating disorder content.
Reported impact
The platforms have enabled adolescent loneliness, bullying and sexual exploitation. The report states that harms to children 'are not hypothetical, and that when they do occur the consequences can be irreversible.'
The findings revealed a gulf between the companies' assurances about child safety and the experience of parents and teens online.
Index analysis
The four companies largely disputed the report's findings, arguing that their features work as intended or that the tests did not represent typical use of the platforms by kids and teens. The companies say they have made their products safer over the years, pointing to parental controls and time limits.
Researchers found that company language about the features often implied greater protective measures than actually existed, using statements like 'We make it difficult' or 'We have measures to protect against this' without describing those measures.
Governance controls
All four companies face thousands of lawsuits with similar claims about harms to young users, which they have disputed. Meta was found liable this year of intentionally addicting and harming young people.
Several countries have announced bans on social media for children under 16, and several tech leaders are set to testify to Congress about their apps' effects on children.
Classification
Sources and evidence
This record was researched and written by the Index, based on the following original reporting.