More than half of Nation Ford High School students spend three to five hours a day on social media, according to a school survey that underscores the habits Meta's landmark settlement now aims to curb.
The Talon, NFHS's student newspaper, polled 367 students in August in a report by student journalist Meliah Mills. The results: 85% use YouTube, 78% use Instagram and 53% report logging three to five hours of daily screen time on social media. The U.S. Surgeon General's advisory, cited in the states' settlement filing, has warned that teens exceeding three hours per day face double the risk of depression and anxiety.
Those numbers arrived weeks before the Talon published its findings on Wednesday, Sept. 16. On Aug. 26, Meta, the parent company of Instagram and Facebook, reached a settlement with 47 states. South Carolina signed on. A federal judge in Oakland, California, approved the deal the same day.
Under the agreement, Meta must cap daily use at two hours for users under 18 on Instagram and Facebook combined. Only a parent can lift the limit. The company also agreed to block teen access between midnight and 6 a.m., mute push notifications during school hours and hide like counts on posts by minors. Cosmetic surgery and extreme makeup filters must be removed for underage users. The changes are expected to roll out within months of court approval, according to NPR.
Meta denied wrongdoing as part of the settlement and did not admit liability.
The settlement requires Meta to pay up to $17 billion over 10 years, according to AP. The funds will support youth online safety initiatives, including mental health programs and crisis intervention services. About 30% of the total, roughly $5.3 billion, hinges on whether YouTube and TikTok adopt comparable safety measures, PBS NewsHour reported.
At Nation Ford, school psychologist Ashley Carlucci told the Talon that social media harms students' sleep, confidence, friendships, grades and productivity, all of which she said directly affect their mental health. Carlucci said unrestricted scrolling on platforms like Meta's rewires teen brains, affecting the prefrontal cortex, the region responsible for attention and executive functioning. She called for more restrictions and protections for teens, whom she described as a vulnerable population easily influenced by societal pressures online.
Freshman Ezra Musoke described the pull firsthand.
"When I plan to scroll a little it turns into three hours," Musoke told the Talon.
Musoke said he believes parents do not understand how some children get bullied online and that social media damages the brains of users. He also said the platforms can be used productively.
A June 2026 study highlighted by Science News found that two or more hours of daily social media use slightly stunted development of the cerebellum, a brain region linked to attention and emotions. Researcher Torkel Klingberg of the Karolinska Institutet called the effect very small but said the trend pointed toward increasing changes over time.
No specific timeline has been announced for when South Carolina families will see Meta's new restrictions take effect on their teens' accounts.
