Parents overwhelmingly support the new online safeguards adopted by Meta, and they want the same basic protections extended across the social media industry.
That is the clearest takeaway from new national polling and focus group research from the Coalition to Empower our Future, which found that more than four-in-five parents support the recent agreement between states and Meta to strengthen protections for young people online.
The agreement includes expanded parental controls, daily screen-time limits and restrictions on notifications during school hours and overnight. Support crossed party lines, with 82 percent of Democratic parents and 84 percent of Republican parents backing the measures.
But parents are not looking at Meta platforms in isolation.
More than four-in-five said other platforms should adopt the same policies. That includes 85 percent who want TikTok to follow, 84 percent who said the same about YouTube and 82 percent who want similar safeguards on Snapchat.
The numbers point to a broader expectation among parents: children move from platform to platform, and the protections available to them should not disappear when they open a different app.
Meta’s agreement gives parents an example of what that could look like.
Parents were especially positive about expanded parental controls, with 82 percent saying they believe those measures would have a positive effect on youth mental health. Eighty percent said the same about daily screen-time limits, while 77 percent pointed to muting notifications during school hours and 76 percent cited overnight restrictions.
“Parents want practical tools that help them keep their kids safe online, and they want those tools no matter what platform their kids are on,” said Glen Weiner, executive director of the Coalition to Empower our Future. “Parents know their kids move from platform to platform. They want to know the same basic protections are there wherever their children are spending time online.”
That view also came through in a separate focus group conducted after the Meta agreement was announced.
“I think every platform should adopt something similar,” said John S., one of the participating parents.
Amber B., another participant, pointed specifically to limits during school and nighttime hours.
“I love that they’re actually making timeframes where they can’t use it at night, where they’re blocking it during school hours,” she said. “I feel like it’s what parents want to see.”
Parents also cited algorithm-based feeds as an area where they want more control. Amir R., another focus group participant, said the ability to turn off an algorithm-based feed ranked among the most important safeguards because recommendation systems can continue serving users content based on their behavior.
For Florida, the findings come as the state has taken a different approach from most other attorneys general. Florida Attorney General James Uthmeier declined to join the multistate Meta settlement, leaving the state outside the agreement while it continues to pursue its own approach.
The polling points to broad agreement among parents on the value of stronger protections for young people online. Parents overwhelmingly support many of the measures included in the Meta agreement and want to see similar safeguards adopted consistently across the platforms their children use.
Eighty percent of parents surveyed said they would support their state legislature putting the online safety measures into law. Sixty-seven percent said they would be more likely to vote for an elected official who advanced them.
Some focus group participants were even more explicit.
“Codify into national law what they need to do to protect children,” John S. said.
Taken together, the polling and focus group findings suggest parents are looking beyond company-by-company changes. They want a common baseline for the platforms their children use.
Meta offers one model parents have already shown they support.
The national survey was conducted by Mercury Analytics from Aug. 28 to Aug. 31 among 1,000 parents nationwide. The focus group was conducted Sept. 3 with parents from across the country.
