社交媒体监管正迅速收紧：西班牙计划禁止16岁以下使用社交媒体，澳大利亚已在12月对16岁以下设禁，英国上议院1月投票支持类似限制、法国下议院亦然；巴西将从下月起要求社交应用进行年龄验证，美国多州已限制更年幼青少年，且加州将很快限制未成年人的算法信息流，而2月9日美国两起针对Meta与YouTube“成瘾性”及Meta保护儿童是否充分的关键审理开始了。与此同时，青少年使用强度很高，在美国平均每天在社交应用上花近5小时，而该行业每年广告收入达数千亿美元。
“13岁最低年龄”源于1998年美国COPPA，但执行薄弱：英国Ofcom调查显示，10-12岁儿童中，超过一半使用Snapchat，超过60%用TikTok，超过70%用WhatsApp，尽管三者名义最低年龄均为13岁。研究对风险程度给出分布而非定论：基于2017-18年对27个欧洲国家及加拿大11-15岁人群的调查，“社交媒体使用障碍”平均患病率为7%，从荷兰的3%到西班牙的14%；让17-25岁心理健康受困者停用社交媒体3周只带来小幅改善，且更一致的证据是使用时长与抑郁、反社会行为等存在“小相关”。
澳大利亚禁令的早期数据呈现强烈比例错配与替代效应：政府称数日内停用4.7百万账号，但该国8-15岁儿童仅约2.5百万人，且官方曾发现该年龄段上端约95%至少使用一个站点；到1月底，澳大利亚最热门10款VPN应用的使用量仅比禁令前数周高约10%。对平台的商业冲击不均衡：估算显示在美国Facebook用户中只有二十分之一未满18岁，但Snapchat用户中有五分之一未满18岁；自2023年以来Meta在欧盟无法向18岁以下展示广告且对业绩无明显影响，而Snapchat亦称18岁以下广告收入“并不重要”。
Social-media regulation is tightening quickly: Spain plans to bar under-16s from social media, Australia outlawed accounts for under-16s in December, Britain’s upper chamber voted for similar restrictions in January and France’s lower house did too; Brazil will require age verification on social apps from next month, several U.S. states already restrict younger teens, California will soon curb algorithmic feeds for minors, and two landmark U.S. trials involving Meta and YouTube began arguments on February 9. Meanwhile teen usage is heavy, averaging nearly five hours a day on social apps in America, and the industry generates hundreds of billions of dollars a year in ad revenue.
The “age 13 minimum” traces back to America’s 1998 COPPA, but enforcement is weak: Ofcom surveys in Britain find that among 10-12-year-olds, over half use Snapchat, more than 60% use TikTok, and more than 70% use WhatsApp, even though all three have a nominal minimum age of 13. Research points to distributions rather than a single verdict: a 2017-18 survey study of 11- to 15-year-olds across 27 European countries and Canada found a 7% average prevalence of troubling dependence, ranging from 3% in the Netherlands to 14% in Spain; getting 17- to 25-year-olds with mental-health struggles off social media for three weeks produced only a small improvement, and the most consistent finding is a small correlation between time spent and problems like depression and antisocial behavior.
Early data from Australia’s ban show sharp ratio mismatches and substitution effects: the government says 4.7m accounts were deactivated within days, despite only about 2.5m children aged 8-15, and it previously found roughly 95% of teens at the upper end of that bracket use at least one site; by end-January, use of the ten most popular VPN apps in Australia was only about 10% higher than in the weeks before the ban. Business exposure varies by platform: estimates in America put under-18s at only one in 20 Facebook users but one in five Snapchat users; since 2023 Meta has been unable to show ads to under-18s in the EU with no visible bottom-line impact, and Snapchat says under-18 ad revenue is “not material.”
Source: More and more countries are banning kids from social media
Subtitle: But the case for bans is weak and the benefits are uncertai
Dateline: 2月 12, 2026 05:50 上午 | Barcelona and Beijing