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Social Media Addiction Statistics

Social media addiction statistics reveal that millions of people across the world could be at risk, especially children and teenagers. Over 17% of the world’s population suffers from social media addiction, according to Clinical Psychology Review. Platforms like TikTok, Facebook, Instagram, and Snapchat have algorithms in place that may have been designed to keep users hooked, which can lead to mental health issues.

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Last Updated: August 6, 2026

Legally Edited and Fact-Checked by:

Ricky A. LeBlanc, Managing Attorney, Sokolove Law

Statistics of Social Media Addiction for 2026

Social media allows us to connect with friends and loved ones, keep up with worldwide events, and stay entertained. However, many social media platforms have algorithms that draw users in and keep them online for long periods, leading to concerns about addiction.

Between 5% and 10% of people in the U.S. could be in danger of social media addiction, according to California State University. Social media addiction can have wide-ranging consequences like anxiety, depression, difficulty forming relationships, and self-harm.

Find out the latest social media addiction statistics in 2026:

• Kids and teenagers are at particular risk of social media addiction. Teens average 5 hours of social media use per day, according to Gallup.
• Roughly 95% of kids ages 10-17 are using social media constantly, per the University of Colorado, Anschutz.
• The most popular social media apps among adolescents are YouTube and TikTok, which are used by 90% and 63% of teens in the U.S., according to Pew Research Center.
• The use of social media for 3 hours or more per day is linked to higher rates of anxiety and depression, according to JAMA Psychiatry.
• The typical person spends 145 minutes or nearly 3 hours on social media daily, per the University of California, Davis.
• Children and teens suffering from a social media addiction are 2-3 times more likely to experience suicidal ideation or behaviors, as noted by Weill Cornell Medicine.
• To date, more than 3,137 social media addiction lawsuits have been filed against TikTok, Snapchat, Meta, YouTube, and more.

Social media platforms continue to grow, with 5.8 billion users expected by 2027. Yet a growing number of legal complaints allege that companies intentionally designed social media platforms to be addictive, putting young users at risk.

At Sokolove Law, our attorneys are ready to help families affected by social media addiction. We have over 45 years of experience helping those harmed by negligent corporations secure compensation.

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Social Media Addiction Statistics in the U.S.

It’s believed up to 34 million Americans could be at risk of social media addiction, according to the California State University. Severe cases of addiction to social media upend the lives of children, teens, and adults across the country every year.

Find out about notable U.S. social media addiction stats: 

• The usage of social media among teens remains higher than that of adults. At its peak in 2022, 95% of teens used YouTube.
• Use of social media apps like TikTok is correlated with higher rates of stress, anxiety, and depression, according to the University of Tennessee. Users with more severe mental health problems were at a higher risk of TikTok addiction.
• In testimony during Tennessee's lawsuit against Meta, state officials reported that 55% of high school girls and 30% of boys said they felt sad or hopeless in 2021, with teen mental health indicators worsening sharply since 2017.
• The same Tennessee data showed reported suicide attempts increased 80% among high school girls and 59% among boys since 2013, trends the state argues are linked to the rise of social media use among young people.
• In 2024, the U.S. Surgeon General Vivek Murthy urged Congress to add a warning to all social media platforms, not unlike the ones on alcohol and cigarettes, due to their addictive nature.
• 85% of adults use YouTube, making it the most popular social media app in the country, according to Pew Research Center.
• Other popular social media platforms among adults include Facebook (70%), Instagram (50%), and TikTok (33%).

Social media addiction can be just as damaging as addictions to gambling or substances, leading to long-term issues. Mental health complications from this type of addiction can even trigger suicidal thoughts or actions.

“Just as the hypodermic needle is the delivery mechanism for drugs like heroin, the smartphone is the modern-day hypodermic needle, delivering digital dopamine for a wired generation.”

– Anna Lembke, Director of Addiction Medicine at Stanford University

Social Media Addiction Statistics Worldwide

With billions of users across the globe, instances of social media addiction have been reported in virtually every region of the world.

Learn more about social media usage statistics by country:

• Over 4.9 billion people use social media around the world, according to the University of California, Davis.
• A review of data from 32 countries found that social media addiction rates range from 5% to 31% on average, with rates varying significantly by country and study methods, according to Addictive Behaviors.
• In India, more than 1 in 3 young people reportedly have a social media platform addiction.
• In Europe, Romania had one of the highest social media addiction rates at 22%, while the Netherlands reported one of the lowest at 5%, according to the World Health Organization (WHO).
• Rates of social media addiction are highest in Africa (37%), Asia (31%), and the Middle East (29%), according to Addictive Behaviors.
• Regions with the lowest social media addiction rates include South America (18%), North America (15%), and Western and Northern Europe (8%).

Overall, global data from the WHO revealed that teen social media addiction rates are on the rise, increasing from 7% to 11% in just a 4-year period. This underscores the need for governments around the world to take more action to keep young people safe.

Social Media Addiction Statistics by Platform

Studies have shown that all of the world’s most popular social media apps and sites come with a risk of addiction, including:

• TikTok
• Facebook
• Instagram
• Snapchat
• YouTube
• WhatsApp
• Twitter (X)
• Roblox

Between advanced algorithms, endless scrolling functions, and constant push notifications, these apps lure users in for hours at a time, particularly kids and teens. Explore the statistics for social media addiction by specific platforms below.

There is far more on this article. Please continue reading on SokoloveLaw at:

TikTok Addiction Statistics

Ontario Schoolboards suing Social Media platforms for harming children

 

4 Ontario School Boards Suing Meta, Snapchat, TikTok

for $4.5 Billion, Alleging Their Platforms Harm

Students’ Mental Health

By Jennifer Cowan

3/28/2024

Updated:

3/28/2024

Four of the largest school boards in Canada have launched lawsuits totalling $4.5 billion against Meta, Snapchat, and TikTok, accusing the social media titans of harming students’ mental health and disrupting the education system.

The Toronto District School Board, Peel District School Board, Toronto Catholic District School Board, and Ottawa-Carleton District School Board have filed four separate but similar cases in Ontario’s Superior Court of Justice.

The March 27 filings accuse Snapchat, Tik Tok, and Meta-owned Facebook and Instagram of deliberately or “negligently” designing platforms that cause “compulsive use” among young people, effectively rewiring the way students “think, behave, and learn.”

The statements of claim say the school boards have suffered “substantial damages” as a result and call on the social media firms to make improvements rather than “leaving educators and schools to manage the fallout.”

The allegations have yet to be proven in court.

Toronto District School Board director of education Colleen Russell-Rawlins says the influence of social media on students cannot be denied.

“It leads to pervasive problems such as distraction, social withdrawal, cyberbullying, a rapid escalation of aggression, and mental health challenges,” Ms. Russell-Rawlins said in a March 28 joint statement with the other school boards.

“Therefore, it is imperative that we take steps to ensure the well-being of our youth. We are calling for measures to be implemented to mitigate these harms and prioritize the mental health and academic success of our future generation,” she said.

Schools for Social Media Change

The four school boards involved in the lawsuits have formed Schools for Social Media Change, a group aiming to strengthen the education system by demanding accountability from social media giants.

More than 90 percent of Ontario students in grades 7 to 12 use social media daily, the group says on its website. Educators say that high usage has led to a youth mental health crisis with 38 percent of young people reporting poor or fair mental health and 26 percent “feeling as though they are in serious psychological distress.”

Forty-five percent of these students use social media for five hours or more a day, the website says.

Peel District School Board director of education Rashmi Swarup says excessive social media use, and its impact on students, has been an issue for some time.

“There has been growing concern for years about the effect of social media on students’ development, mental health, safety, and emotional well-being. Urgent action is needed to protect students from further harm,” Ms. Swarup said in the statement. “That is why we have come together in bringing action against social media giants to make their products safer while addressing the disruptions they are causing to our educational mandate.”

The website lists nine separate but linked “harms” the school boards are suffering due to students’ social media addictions.

“Administrators are adjusting curriculum to respond to an unfocused and inattentive student population,” the site says.

Other alleged harms include additional costs for increased mental health support, IT infrastructure and cyber security, and digital literacy and online safety programming. Resources are also needed to investigate and respond to threats made against schools, staff, and students over social media as well as to protect children from adult predators, the site says.

The school boards, in their lawsuits, are asking Meta, Snapchat, and TikTok to “remediate these enormous costs to the education system.”

The Epoch Times contacted the social media companies named in the lawsuits for comment but did not immediately receive a response.

US Lawsuits

This is not the first time school boards have sued social media companies for causing a “mental health crisis” among students. U.S. school districts in Alabama, California, Florida, Maryland, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Tennessee, and Washington state have all filed lawsuits similar to those launched by the Ontario school boards.

U.S. lawmakers and intelligence officials also have TikTok in their crosshairs, identifying it as a possible security concern. Legislation was recently approved in the House of Representatives that could ban the China-made social media app in the United States over concerns it could be used by the Chinese regime to influence users or access their data. The bill is currently before the Senate.

Chinese Internet company ByteDance, the owners of TikTok, has said it would deny requests by the Chinese regime for data on Americans.

In China, companies do not have the right to withhold data from the government. 

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EU probing child protection efforts by TikTok

 

EU launches probe of TikTok over

child protection concerns

The EU on Monday announced a formal investigation into TikTok over alleged breaches of its obligations to protect minors online, under a landmark new law on policing digital content.

Issued on: 19/02/2024 - 15:38

2 min

It is the second probe into a major online platform since Brussels introduced the Digital Services Act (DSA), after targeting tech billionaire Elon Musk’s X in December.

Brussels is particularly concerned that the video-sharing app owned by China’s ByteDance may not be doing enough to address negative impacts on young people.

A key worry is the so-called “rabbit hole” effect—which occurs when users are fed related content based on an algorithm, in some cases leading to more dangerous content.

The European Commission’s concerns also include TikTok’s age verification tools, which it said “may not be reasonable, proportionate and effective”.

The commission opened “formal proceedings to assess whether TikTok may have breached” the DSA in other areas including “advertising transparency” and “data access for researchers”.

The action comes after analysing a risk assessment report by TikTok and its replies to Brussels’ requests for more information about what measures the video-sharing platform has taken against illegal content, the protection of minors and access to data.

'Spare no effort' 

Regulators will continue to gather evidence, the commission said, adding that the move empowered it to take further enforcement steps if necessary.

“As a platform that reaches millions of children and teenagers, TikTok must fully comply with the DSA and has a particular role to play in the protection of minors online,” said the EU’s internal market commissioner, Thierry Breton.

“We are launching this formal infringement proceeding today to ensure that proportionate action is taken to protect the physical and emotional well-being of young Europeans. We must spare no effort to protect our children,” Breton added.

TikTok has over 142 million monthly users across the EU, up from 125 million last year.

“TikTok needs to take a close look at the services they offer and carefully consider the risks that they pose to their users—young as well as old,” commission executive vice president Margrethe Vestager said.

The formal probe will focus on four areas: how TikTok assesses and mitigates systemic risks; how the company is complying with protecting minors’ privacy and safety; TikTok’s measures on providing a “reliable” advertisement repository and the steps taken to increase transparency.

TikTok said it was working to protect minors online.

“TikTok has pioneered features and settings to protect teens and keep under 13s off the platform, issues the whole industry is grappling with,” a TikTok spokesperson said.

“We’ll continue to work with experts and industry to keep young people on TikTok safe, and look forward to now having the opportunity to explain this work in detail to the Commission.”

Risk of fines 

There is no deadline for the completion of the proceedings.

The DSA gives Brussels the power to levy heavy fines, with penalties for violations that can include fines going up to six percent of a digital firm’s global revenues.

The commission can even block platforms in the 27-nation bloc for serious and repeated violations.

The EU law came into effect last year for the world’s biggest online platforms including TikTok and X as well as Facebook and Instagram.

The new rules demand companies do more to police content online, but also expect digital retailers to act swiftly and effectively to protect shoppers online.

The DSA law has applied to all platforms since February 17.

 (AFP)