Meta’s research found that parental supervision does not really help curb the compulsive use of social media by teenagers

An internal study conducted at Meta called “Project MYST” created in collaboration with the University of Chicago, found that parental supervision and control – such as time limits and restricted access – had little effect on children’s compulsive use of social media. This study also found that children who have experienced stressful life events may not have the ability to moderate their use of social media appropriately.

This is one of the most prominent allegations revealed during testimony in the social media addiction trial that began last week in Los Angeles County Superior Court. The plaintiff in the lawsuit is identified by her initials “KGM” or her first name, “Kaley.” She, along with her mother and others who joined the lawsuit, accuses social media companies of creating “addictive and dangerous” products that have led young users to suffer, suffer from depression, physical abuse, eating disorders, self-harm, suicidal thoughts, and more.

The case is one of many landmark cases to be heard this year, accusing social media companies of harming children. The results of these cases will affect the way these companies treat their small users and may prompt regulators to take further action.

In this case, the plaintiff sued Meta, YouTube, ByteDance (TikTok), and Snap, but the latter two companies had settled their claims before the start of the trial.

In the ongoing jury trial in LA, Kaley’s attorney, Mark Lanier, presented an internal investigation at Meta, which he said found evidence that Meta knew, but did not disclose this specific injury.

In Project MYST, which stands for the Meta and Youth Social Emotional Trends survey, the Meta study concluded that “parental and household characteristics are not significantly related to youth’s reported levels of attention to their use of social media.”

Or, in other words, even when parents try to control their children’s use of social media, through parental controls or even house rules and supervision, it does not affect whether a child will use social media excessively or use it compulsively. This study was based on a survey of 1,000 teenagers and their parents about their use of social media.

The study also noted that both parents and youth agreed with this, stating that “there was no correlation between parent reports or youth reports of parental supervision, and youth assessment measures of attentiveness or ability.”

If the study’s findings are accurate, it could mean that the use of things like parental controls built into the Instagram app or time limits on smartphones won’t necessarily help teenagers avoid excessive use of social media, the plaintiff’s attorney said. As the original complaint states, teenagers are exploited by social media products, whose harms include algorithmic feeds designed to keep users scrolling, variable temporary rewards that manipulate the delivery of dopamine, endless notifications, missing parental control tools, and more.

During his testimony, the head of Instagram, Adam Mosseri, said that he was not familiar with the Meta MYST Project, even if the text shows that he gave permission to proceed with the study.

“We do a lot of research projects,” said Mosseri, after saying that he doesn’t remember anything about MYST other than its name.

However, the plaintiff’s lawyer pointed to this study as an example of why social media companies must answer for their allegations, not parents. He noted that Kaley’s mother, for example, tried to stop her daughter’s addiction to social media and use, even taking away her phone at times.

In addition, the study found that teenagers who experienced a greater number of negative life events – such as those dealing with alcoholic parents, bullying at school, or other problems – reported less indifference in their use of social media. That means children who experience trauma in their real lives are at greater risk of addiction, the lawyer said.

On stage, Mosseri seemed to agree with the findings, saying, “There are various reasons why this might be the case. What I always hear is that people use Instagram as a way to escape from a very difficult reality.” Meta is careful not to label any form of overuse as addiction; instead, Mosseri said the company uses the term “problematic use” to refer to someone who “spends more time on Instagram than they feel comfortable with.”

Meta advocates, on the other hand, pushed the idea that the research was more focused on understanding if teenagers feel they use social media too much, not whether they are addicted or not. In general, they aimed to place more responsibility on parents and the realities of life as the cause of children such as Kaley’s negative emotional states, not the products of social media companies.

For example, Meta’s lawyers point out that Kaley is a child of divorced parents, has an abusive father, and is being bullied at school.

How the jury will interpret the findings of studies like Project MYST and others, as well as the evidence from both sides, remains to be seen. Mosseri noted, however, that MYST’s findings were not published publicly, and no warnings were ever given to youth or parents as a result of the study.

Meta has been asked to comment.