The social media giants of the world generated $10.7 billion in advertising revenue in 2022, all from their US users who are 17 years old or younger, a study has claimed.
Harvard researchers found that about 20 percent ($2.1 billion) of revenue from Facebook, Instagram, Snapchat, X and YouTube came from children 12 and under.
The other $8.6 billion came from users aged 13 to 17.
The study published Wednesday has claimed to provide the first estimate of how much money this handful of companies makes by snaring young internet users.
According to a new study, social media companies made an estimated $10.7 billion in advertising revenue in 2022 from children and adolescents in the US. About 20 percent of these earnings came from the habits of kids 12 and under
Research has shown a link between youth social media consumption and mental health conditions like depression, anxiety, and eating disorders.
These sites were designed to be addictive to children, former Facebook employees have claimed.
With billions of dollars at stake, social media companies have ample reason to keep kids hooked, the researchers behind the study concluded.
Because these vast, influential companies are not required to make their data available to the public, the study authors had to assemble their estimates from other sources of information.
Public survey and market research results provided data on young users’ social media habits in 2022, including how much time they spent on each site in a day. Researchers used these figures to estimate how all the children in the US were using social media platforms.
Market research helped the study authors estimate how much money each social media company made from advertising that year. (These numbers were not available for free to the public.)
A computer simulation provided the specific dollar amounts.
In addition to these figures, the researchers estimated that 30 to 40 percent of Snapchat, TikTok and YouTube’s ad revenue come from children age 17 and younger.
The figures are staggering:
| Company | Estimated Advertising Revenue |
|---|---|
| $493,450,000 | |
| $4,480,400,000 | |
| Snapchat | $1,128,700,000 |
| TikTok | $2,111,800,000 |
| $59,238,000 | |
| YouTube | $2,151,600,000 |
Instagram’s ad revenues from young people topped the list at nearly $4.5 billion, more than twice as much as either TikTok or YouTube (about $2.1 billion each).
Twitter wasn’t renamed X until 2023, which the study data reflect.
Here is how much of that money comes specifically from pre-teens’ social media habits:
| Company | Estimated Advertising Revenue |
|---|---|
| $137,160,000 | |
| $801,100,000 | |
| Snapchat | $122,770,000 |
| TikTok | $102,270,000 |
| $19,331,000 | |
| YouTube | $959,120,000 |
Children 12 and younger were responsible for YouTube’s nearly $1 billion in yearly ad revenue, the researchers found.
Instagram was close behind at $800 million.
The figures for teenagers are even higher:
| Company | Estimated Advertising Revenue |
|---|---|
| $356,290,000 | |
| $4,038,700,000 | |
| Snapchat | $1,005,900,000 |
| TikTok | $2,009,600,000 |
| $39,907,000 | |
| YouTube | $1,192,500,000 |
Instagram’s $4 billion figure dwarfed the others among teenagers.
TikTok was first runner-up at $2 billion.
The results appeared in the journal PLoS One.
With so much money at stake, it is hard to believe that tech companies will make their products less addictive to children, the study’s authors suggested
Big tech companies have strenuously resisted government regulations, and these results ‘underscore the financial incentive for platforms to oppose government efforts to protect youth,’ wrote the study’s authors.
Despite tech executives’ insistence that these companies can self-regulate and ‘do the right thing for their users,’ the monumental profits from young users suggest there is little reason for them to change course.
When government officials have tried to regulate the tech industry, experts can’t agree on what that should look like.
For instance, the Kids Online Safety Act (KOSA), a bill introduced to Congress in 2022 and reintroduced in 2023, reportedly aims to stop social media companies from collecting data on children under 16.
The data collected on children helps shape the targeted advertising users see on social media, enabling companies to feed them more enticing content.
KOSA would also require social media companies to ‘act in the best interest of minors’ by limiting their exposure to harmful content.
But even groups that tend to be critical of big tech companies, like the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF), have opposed KOSA. The group has claimed that the bill’s broad scope could open the door to increased censorship and reduced freedom online.
‘Without clear guidance regarding what sort of design or content might lead to these harms, they would likely censor any discussions that could make them liable,’ according to an EFF statement.
‘It would put the tools of censorship in the hands of state attorneys general and would greatly endanger the rights, and safety, of young people online.’
Whatever the details, it is clear that social media companies are reaping huge profits from their young users.
