Canada and Brazil banned social media for kids. Should the United States follow in the footsteps of its neighboring countries? New polling shows widespread support for the idea. 

For decades, parents — and now courts — are arguing that social media is harmful to children. A new poll by Reuters/Ipsos says that three in five Americans want stricter regulations of social media companies. 

On Monday, a U.S. Appeals Court announced that lawsuits can proceed against Meta platforms, ByteDance’s TikTok, and other social media over claims that social media is addictive and hurtful, according to Axios.

“Meta, which denies the allegations, says it could face up to $1.4 trillion in penalties if the states prevail. A New Mexico state court on Thursday separately ordered Meta to pay $567 million into a teen mental health fund and change how its platforms function for young users, after finding the company is to blame for harming children’s wellbeing,” Yahoo News! reported. It also noted that NetChoice, a trade group backed by social media companies, sued to stop age verification requirements on apps, arguing that they violate free-speech rights. 

Dr. Lee Warren, practicing neurosurgeon and author of “The Life Changing Art of Self Brain Surgery Connecting Neuroscience to Faith to Radically Transform Your Life,” thinks there’s solid reasoning for the legal challenges. Asked by “Washington Watch” guest host and former Congressman Jody Hice what can be done to safeguard the hearts and minds of our next generation, Warren replied,

“We’re seeing the downstream effects in children of these platforms that are engineered for variable reward, which creates this endless scroll behavior. It’s directly hijacking the developing dopamine and attention reward systems of these young children’s brains,” Warren said. “The systems are basically training these kids’ brains without their consent. And that means the kid sort of loses agency. They’re not choosing to become addicted to this platform. It just designed to create that addiction, and courts are catching up with that.”

Hice also mentioned that the desire for social media regulation is bipartisan, with about 71% of Democrats and 62% of Republicans in favor.

“Parents are just now realizing that these software platforms are creating revenue by changing the architecture of their children’s brains. It’s leading to anxiety and compulsive comparison behavior and checking the app compulsively,” Warren explained. 

Fear of missing out and an addiction to dopamine hits from the phone both stem from social media use, according to Warren. It’s more prevalent in teenage girls. 

“We’re seeing this significant suppression of melatonin because of blue light and late-night use of these apps. So that’s creating fragmented sleep, impaired growth, hormone release, stunt[ed] growth and emotional regulation, [and] delayed puberty. Kids are choosing to stay inside and on apps rather than go outside. And it’s really creating a significant brain rewiring problem at the worst time in the brain development process,” Warren shared. 

Social media also produces an overproduction of dopamine.

“Your dopamine reward system is designed to be motivational for you, to get you to engage in behaviors that are good for you, but it can be hijacked by any substance or activity that gives you that same neurochemical trigger of reward without you having to work for it. So, then the brain says, ‘I can get this more easily than from exercise or relationship or whatever else,’” Warren said. “And the brain then begins to wire for that being the only thing that can make it feel pleasure.” 

More dangers of social media include delayed hormone production and growth rates, Warren elaborated. 

“I think we got behind, because nobody thought that these companies were doing this intentionally, but they were. And so, it took a few years for you to realize that TikTok and Facebook and Instagram weren’t just good ways to entertain your kids, but they’re actually training your children to generate revenue for these companies at the expense of their brain development,” Warren said. 

Fifteen or 16 years old should be the bare minimum for kids to even get a phone of their own, according to Warren. Eleven or 12 is far too young, he asserts. 

“You wouldn’t give [children] access to crack cocaine. You shouldn’t give them access to smartphones either.”