More than half of Americans support banning social media for youth: Survey

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A new survey from the Pew Research Center shows that more than half of Americans support a ban on social media for those under the age of 16.

Survey results published Wednesday show 56 percent of American respondents said they support such a ban for adolescents, 21 percent opposed it and 23 percent were unsure.

U.S. adults between the ages of 30 and 49 were the demographic most likely to support a ban, with 63 percent of those respondents backing it.

Fifty-seven percent of adults between the ages of 50 and 64 also agreed that a ban should be in place, per the survey.

Parents of children under the age of 18 were also largely in favor of such a social media ban, with 65 percent of these surveyed parents supporting it and 17 percent opposing it.

More than half — 52 percent — of those without a child also said that a ban is needed, while 22 percent of survey respondents said it is not.

Lawmakers in Congress have been considering legislation regarding online safety protections amid a rise in suicides among adolescents and young adults.

On Monday, the House passed the Kids Internet and Digital Safety (KIDS) Act in a 267-117 vote.

If enacted, the package would increase data privacy and safeguards for minors while completely banning targeted advertising aimed at children.

It would also mandate that platforms turn on the highest privacy settings by default, provide options to disable addictive product features and prohibit disappearing messages for users under 17.

While the legislation passed with bipartisan support in the House, some senators have declared the package “dead on arrival” because of changes made to previous pieces of legislation merged into the package.

According to the Pew Research Center survey, 59 percent of Republicans and 54 percent of Democrats supported a social media ban for anyone under the age of 16. The U.K. recently moved forward with a similar ban for kids under 16.

The survey was taken from May 26 to June 1 among 9,750 U.S. adults. The margin of error is 1.4 percentage points.

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