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Banning social media for minors: how much do they actually bring in?
On 14 August 2026, France's Conseil constitutionnel struck down the ban on social media for under-15s, along with the digital curfew planned for 15 to 18 year olds.
For months, the debate turned on the mental health of teenagers, on whether age verification was workable, on the responsibility of parents. One question was almost never asked: how much does this audience bring in to the platforms.
There is an answer. It is American, and it is staggering.
11 billion dollars in a single year
A study published in PLOS ONE on 27 December 2023 by Amanda Raffoul and her co-authors, of the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, puts at 11 billion dollars the advertising revenue generated in the single year 2022 by American users under 18 (PLOS ONE study, covered by the Harvard Gazette).
2.1 billion comes from under-13s, that is, from users below the minimum age set by most platforms. The remaining 8.6 billion comes from 13 to 17 year olds.
Since no platform publishes its revenue by age bracket, these amounts come from a simulation model built on public surveys and market research.
A very uneven dependency
The headline figure impresses. What says more is the share minors represent in each platform's revenue.
Snapchat: 41% of its American advertising revenue
TikTok: 35%
YouTube: 27%
Instagram: 16%
X: 2.0%
Facebook: 1.9%
The study is American and covers under-18s, while the French law targeted under-15s. The amounts are therefore not transposable as they stand.
Four dollars in ten at Snapchat. More than a third at TikTok. Facebook and X, by contrast, do almost entirely without.
In Australia, the ban exists. Minors are still there
Australia has blocked under-16s since 10 December 2025, with fines reaching 30 million euros. Three months later, the eSafety Commissioner surveyed more than 4,000 children and their families (eSafety report).
More than 81% of under-16s are still using the platforms covered, down from 86% before
Daily use is almost unchanged, 58% against 60%
Account ownership falls from 52% to 42%
Reddit, less closely monitored, rises from 6% to more than 9%
The children who kept their account describe how: an age already recorded as 16 or over, help from a parent, a new account after deactivation, a VPN. None of these routes clearly dominates.
Key takeaways
11 billion dollars of advertising revenue attributable to American minors in 2022, of which 2.1 billion to under-13s.
41% of Snapchat's advertising revenue comes from under-18s, against 1.9% at Facebook.
In Australia, three months after the ban, more than 81% of under-16s are still on the platforms covered.