Contact:                           

Dan Cassino                                                             Lisa Batitto

Executive Director, FDU Poll                                Partnership for a Drug-Free New Jersey

973.896.7072/ dcassino@fdu.edu                    news@drugfreenj.org

NJ Voters Favor Social Media Warning Labels

Broad agreement that social media is bad for kids, but only half of parents monitor usage

Fairleigh Dickinson University, Madison, NJ, November 18, 2024 – According to the latest results from the FDU Poll, sponsored by the Partnership for a Drug Free New Jersey and the Opioid Education Foundation of America, both parents and non-parents in the state agree that social media is bad for young people, and favor cigarette-style warning labels. However, parents are less likely to think that social media is bad for the mental health of young people, and less likely to say that it is linked with substance abuse issues.

“Young people are spending hours a day on social media,” said Dan Cassino, Professor of Government and Politics at Fairleigh Dickinson University, and the Executive Director of the FDU Poll. “People aren’t quite sure exactly how bad it is for them, but just about no one thinks it’s good for them.”

Earlier this year, US Surgeon General Dr. Vivek Murthy called for warnings on social media sites similar to those found on cigarettes, warning users about the potential negative effects of social media on mental health, especially among minors.

Overall, 77 percent of New Jersey says that they would support a warning label requirement for social media, with only 13 percent saying that they’re opposed to such a requirement. Support is higher among older voters, but even among the youngest cohort – people ages 30 and under – two thirds (67 percent) say that they support a warning.

About a quarter of respondents say that they currently have at least one child between the ages of 12 and 25 living at home with them, and these voters are more likely (84 percent) to support social media warning labels than adults who don’t have children at home with them (72 percent), but the age of the children doesn’t seem to matter. Support is also higher among Democrats (82 percent) than Republicans (73 percent), but the proposal is popular across party lines.

“You might expect a partisan divide over these warning labels, with concerns about the nanny state,” said Cassino. “But there’s just no significant political divide on these warning labels, probably because Democrats and Republicans are equally likely to see social media as bad for kids.”

Despite the apparent concern over social media usage, parents in New Jersey are about equally divided on whether they monitor that usage. About 10 percent of parents with children 12-25 living at home say that their children don’t use social media at all; the rest are almost equally divided between not monitoring usage at all (45 percent), and monitoring it at least “rarely” (43 percent). Only about a quarter of parents (26 percent) say that they monitor children’s social media use “occasionally” or “frequently.”

The same way a child’s friends can have a great influence on their decision to experiment with drugs, your child’s social media activities also can be an influencer in this decision,” said Angelo Valente, the Executive Director of the Partnership for a Drug-Free New Jersey. “It is crucial that parents know who a child is spending time with both in person and on social media - and discuss with them the deadly risks of experimenting with drugs.”

Most parents with children who use social media (68 percent) believe that their children are spending one to four hours a day on social media – but, of course, half of the parents whose children use social media also say that they don’t monitor that usage, so it’s not clear how they would know. Only about 1 in 7 parents (14 percent) say that their child uses social media for less than an hour a day, and about the same number (14 percent) say that their child uses it for more than four hours a day.

Parents are rather less likely than non-parents to say that social media use is generally bad for young people’s mental health. Overall, 60 percent of New Jersey voters say that social media is generally bad for young people, with only 9 percent saying that it’s good. But that figure is just 53 percent among parents, 10 points lower than among voters who don’t have children living with them at home.

“I think we’re seeing a lot of motivated reasoning with how parents view social media,” said Cassino. “Parents have to be less likely to think social media is bad for kids, because if it was bad for kids, they’d have to do something about it."

New Jersey is similarly split on the impact of social media on substance abuse issues among young people. Experts have argued that social media can serve both as a source of stress among young people, as well as a potential source for illicit drugs. Exposure to images of other young people using drugs may serve to normalize their use for young users of social media. In addition, illicit drugs of various kinds, including synthetic opiates, have been sold through social media sites commonly used by young people, such as Snapchat. Forty percent of New Jersey voters say that social media increases the likelihood of substance abuse among young people, with an almost equal number (37 percent) saying that it has no effect. Only a small number (4 percent) think that social media use reduces the likelihood of substance abuse.

“Too many of our children are dying from tainted pills they access while online. Understanding the dangers of social media - where fentanyl-laced fake prescription drugs can be obtained with just a few clicks - can help parents save their child’s life,” said Elaine Pozycki, Founder and Chair of the Opioid Education Foundation of America. “All parents need to be aware of the risks of social media and know what their children can access and what they are exposed to.”