Courts and app bans won't fix screen addiction for kids, expert says. Parents need to step up

Late last month, a California jury found Meta and YouTube harmed a young girl who used the platforms with addictive design features.

It’s being called a landmark case and likened to social media’s Big Tobacco moment — referencing the case that found cigarette companies created an addictive product that harmed people who used it.

But, Brad Snyder said how we regulate social media for kids doesn’t end with finding who’s at fault.

Snyder is an author and researcher who studies kids for governments and companies like Warner Brothers Discovery, Cartoon Network and Nickelodeon as well as host of the podcast “Talking About Kids.”

The Show spoke with him more about it and asked if he thinks this trial marks a turning point moment for kids and social media.

Full conversation

BRAD SNYDER: I guess so. First of all, I think that these companies were engaged in practices that they knew were against the law and were potentially harmful to kids. And so for that, I’m glad that they’re being held accountable.

But in the larger way, I feel like what we have done is akin to suing an automobile manufacturer to make their cars safer, but we’ve done nothing to help the drivers drive better.

LAUREN GILGER: Because the argument here, right, is that they’re making a product that is as addictive as cigarettes or casinos, that kind of thing? But you’re saying it’s not necessarily about the product, it’s about how people use it.

Brad Snyder

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SNYDER: Well, and again, we’re looking at examples of two in particular social media sites, if you consider YouTube to be a social media site — which, by the way, in Australia’s ban of social media, that doesn’t include YouTube.

But I would say that this lawsuit is against two particular apps. And our kids are on screens wherever they go, and they are being interacted with not just through Instagram, but through a myriad of platforms and through video games and even through their TVs.

GILGER: So this is the first time a social media company, though, has been found at fault in a case like this in this kind of personal way. There’s a legal precedent here as well. It validates this legal theory that social media sites, apps can cause personal harm or injury.

And like you mentioned, in Australia, we’re seeing nationwide bans on youth on social media, or some social media. We’re seeing lots of states enact laws. It feels like there is momentum to try to stop young people in general from being able to use these things because of the harms they bring.

Do you think that that’s the answer?

SNYDER: Well, I’ve been watching Australia. And again, it’s a little too soon because the ban really went into effect at the end of 2025. Anecdotally, though, there’s been plenty of interviews of young people in Australia saying things like, “Well, these social media sites that were banned, we’re not using them anyway,” or “We’ve moved to these other sites.”

And again, what that says to me is that mechanizing supervision and care of young people just doesn’t work, and it really never has. And what I mean by that is, anytime we think that the answer is to take a TV away or to forbid this program or forbid this app, we’ve done nothing to actually give youth the skills they need to make better decisions and to be healthier, regardless of the app, regardless of the platform, regardless of the screen.

GILGER: So let’s talk about what that would look like and what research shows here. It’s been described in some research as like a double edged sword. We shouldn’t think about it as like more use equals more harm. It’s more how teens use it: doomscrolling versus interacting with people on these apps.

How do you advise young people, parents to use these in healthier ways?

SNYDER: Well, happily I’ve got two sources that I can draw upon when I provide advice in this. And first is something that we talked about back when these lawsuits were just being introduced. Back in 2023, when you and I talked, I pointed to the U.S. Surgeon General’s Advisory on Social Media and Youth Mental Health and the recommendations in that report.

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And again, that report really kind of kicked it off for many attorneys general to launch these lawsuits. The recommendations in that also match the recommendations of Dr. Michael Rich, who is the founder and director of the Digital Wellness Lab at Boston Children’s Hospital.

And both start by encouraging adults to model positive behaviors with their devices. And we can see this when we go into restaurants or when we go into public spaces. Adults are always mad that their children are doomscrolling, that they can’t take their eyes off their phone, but just look around where adults’ attention are. And we cannot expect our children to have better behaviors than we do.

But something that I really like from Dr. Rich’s perspective is this idea of giving them an alternative. Researchers look at why young people are using these devices, and they’re using them to fulfill some fairly basic developmental needs that aren’t being met in other domains.

So the answer is not only to forbid these devices or forbid these apps, but give them places where their developmental needs can be met.

GILGER: Like in-person activities, things like that?

SNYDER: Exactly. You know, Lauren, whenever I talk to focus groups of kids, one of my first questions to all of them, just to kind of get them talking, is I simply ask them what they like to do when they’re not in school. And I would say in a focus group of eight kids, I would say six to eight — it’s rare that a kid says that their favorite thing to do is spend time on their phone.

Invariably they say that their favorite thing to do is hang out with friends or play a sport or do something like draw. They have hobbies that are IRL — that are in real life — that involve interacting with real people, and they enjoy them, and they want more of that.

GILGER: Right.

SNYDER: So there are alternatives, and we just have to provide them.

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GILGER: Yeah. So then, Brad, the question becomes like where is the line? I guess, like, you can tell people to use these things healthily or in better ways, but if the argument is that you’re giving your kids cigarettes essentially, and then expecting them not to be addicted to it, is that something they can regulate on their own, or is this really that addictive?

SNYDER: You know, there is a science, a neuroscience to this that I don’t fully understand. What I have read has said that it’s inappropriate to liken the addiction to a cigarette addiction simply because of the chemicals that are involved, because no chemicals are introduced into the body through the device. Rather, you’re triggering chemicals that your body already produces in reaction to different stimuli, and you can provide different stimuli and get those same chemicals going.

So I think the analogy isn’t quite right. But what we do for sure, need to do is make sure that we as adults know what our kids are doing online.

And the simplest thing to get that started is to ask them. A big deal in the monitoring is to be there, present to your child, having them show you what they’re doing online and — and I hate to say it — sometimes participating so that you fully get what they are getting out of it and can have informed discussions about it.

And actually, my big concern is that parents and adults are going to look at this ruling and they’re going to say, “Oh, good, you know, Meta is being held accountable. YouTube is being held accountable. I don’t have to worry anymore.”

GILGER: And you don’t think that’s the case.

SNYDER: I don’t, because there’s going to be another app, there’s going to be another screen, there’s going to be another service.

And we’ve done nothing, as I mentioned before in my first analogy, you know, we’ve punished the automotive manufacturer for having an unsafe automobile, but we haven’t taught the kid how to drive better.

GILGER: Yeah, and that’s the trick.

SNYDER: That’s the trick.