Louisiana and Texas test new laws to shield teens from junk food ads on social media

By Dr. Liji Thomas, MDReviewed by Lauren HardakerJun 24 2025

Will new social media laws in Louisiana and Texas cut teens’ exposure to junk food marketing, or just change the game? This innovative study tracks what young people actually see online, aiming to level the playing field for youth health.

Protocol: Assessing the impact of novel social media policies in the USA restricting youth exposure to food and beverage advertisements: a protocol for a difference-in-difference study. Image Credit: Tijana Moraca / Shutterstock

Social media constantly and persuasively target adolescents with online advertisements of food and drink, mostly for junk food. Regulatory policies in some US states mandate parental consent before adolescents can access social media, and/or restrict targeted advertisements on pages that target young people. A recent paper in the journal BMJ Open describes the protocol for an ongoing study that aims to assess the impact of such restrictive policies on adolescent exposure to food and beverage advertisements.

Introduction

In the USA, advertisements are a form of protected free speech, and hence, regulation is complex due to First Amendment protections, though some regulation exists. Young people are heavily influenced by food and drink advertisements. Social media advertising adds a whole new dimension to this marketing technique because it offers tremendous adaptability and novelty. Little wonder that these platforms spend $16.4 billion on advertising foods and beverages.

Almost all American youngsters have access to smartphones, and 75% have their own social media profiles. On average, they spend 1.5 hours a day on social media and the same time watching videos online, though social media use among White youths is lower compared to Black and Hispanic adolescents.

Targeting adolescents

Adolescents view approximately 17 food and drink advertisements in one hour of online time, primarily on social media. These promote mainly calorie-rich but nutrient-empty junk foods. Such exposures predict an unhealthy diet, excessive caloric intake, and overweight or obesity among children and adolescents.

Nearly 40% of below-poverty-line adolescents are overweight or obese, at increased risk for later-life diet-related malignancies. Teenagers from lower socioeconomic backgrounds spend 40% more time on social media.

Black teenagers see 70% more food advertisements on television than White children of the same age. While 70% of teenagers follow brands, Hispanics and Black adolescents exceed this proportion.

Black and Hispanic adolescents are targeted as “vital consumers” by marketers due to their social media use, spending habits, brand and product loyalty, and positioning at the leading edge of culture. Junk food advertising targets them by appealing to their ethnic and cultural identity.

How social media attracts

Multiple social theories explain the massive influence of social media advertisements on adolescents. First, they are highly interactive, with ‘likes’, comments, and ‘followers’. Secondly, they enable adolescents to fit in with peer behavior, provide social approval and popularity, and are self-reinforcing by design. Neuroimaging studies show heightened reward response to posts with many ‘likes’, further reinforcing engagement. In fact, social media advertising provides a uniquely customized trap for adolescents, tuned to their developmental stage beyond the ability of generalized media like television.

Sponsored advertisements, influencers, and official accounts are all used to market food and drink on social media. Influencers play a unique role in advertising that slips under the adolescent’s defenses, offering what feels like wise guidance from a friend rather than persuasive advertising. This is reinforced by ‘parasocial relationships,’ where adolescents perceive influencers as trusted peers, making them more susceptible to brand messaging and less likely to recognize the persuasive intent.

About the study

In view of these considerations, the protocol focuses specifically on Louisiana and Texas, two of the first states to implement such policies, where some states have policies restricting anyone under the age of 18 from using social media without parental consent. Some also prohibit targeted advertising to youth. The current study focuses on understanding how these policies affect adolescents' exposure to food and beverage advertisements on social media.

It is based on a statistical technique called difference-in-differences, which helps understand how far an intervention causes an observed outcome. The outcome is recorded in the intervention and control groups before and after the intervention. The difference in the differences between the two groups is analyzed. This replicates an experimental study using observational data.

For the current study, 175 adolescents from Louisiana and 175 from Texas, as well as 350 demographically matched comparisons from other states, are recruited annually (totaling 700 participants per year) over a five-year period. This diverse sample of adolescents is asked to record their mobile screens for an hour during internet use and complete a survey on several topics.

Planned analysis

The screen recordings are assessed for social media type, food and/or beverage advertisements, and the types of foods offered. Notably, these states have differing regulatory strategies to control advertisements on social media. This allows for a direct comparison of the impact of different laws.

The participants change each year, avoiding the difficulties of same-person follow-up and the limitations that occur as participants become too old for the study.

This research, funded by the Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development, fills a crucial need since social media advertisements promoting junk foods may exacerbate dietary disparities among lower-income Black and Hispanic youth. The study specifically aims to test the hypotheses that these policies will reduce ad exposure more for lower-income adolescents (H2) and for Black and Hispanic adolescents compared to White adolescents (H3).

Conclusion

“To the authors’ knowledge, this study will be the first time these 'novel yet proven methods' will be used to evaluate social media restriction policies in the USA.”

The policy itself is the first of its kind and fills a need in an unregulated area where regulation is extremely challenging, though crucial for child health. Requiring parental permission prior to children’s social media use may reduce exposure risk or motivate parents to become more consciously aware of their child’s exposure. However, the study also considers the possibility that adolescents might circumvent these controls, which is a limitation discussed in the protocol.

It will also explore how this policy affects health disparities and examine these effects across states with different demographic and political backgrounds, where the public may respond differently. Thus, different policies can be compared in this study, a major advantage.

Ultimately, it seeks to determine whether lower-income adolescents will see significantly fewer advertisements than their wealthier peers. The same phenomenon will be explored among Hispanic and Black children compared to their White counterparts. These are study hypotheses to be tested, rather than established findings.

If more states implement such policies, they will not be used as controls. Conversely, if the federal government mandates this policy, the data from the comparison states will serve as baseline data to compare with the outcomes after the federal law is passed.

The study also includes embedded qualitative interviews with adolescents and parents to further understand the impacts of the policies, providing additional nuance beyond the quantitative findings.