The Danish competition authority conducted a behavioral experiment involving 269 teenagers aged 13 to 17 to explore ways to reduce their social media usage. Over six weeks, participants interacted with social media more than 1.2 million times, revealing that minor interventions could lead to substantial changes in their usage patterns.

Before the experiment, participants averaged 3 hours and 19 minutes daily on social media. The interventions, which were applied in every session, resulted in a 31-36% reduction in usage, particularly among those who were heavy users or exhibited low self-control and high dependency on social media.

One effective intervention involved a six-second wait with a calming animation before accessing social media, which reduced daily usage by over an hour for some participants. Many teenagers opted not to open social media at all when faced with these interventions, leading to a 13-28% decrease in attempts to access these platforms.

The experiment was the first of its kind in Denmark to track teenagers' social media usage continuously, based on actual activity. It found that school-aged participants spent 11% of their school time on social media, while those in higher education spent 21%. The interventions halved interactions during school hours and reduced overall usage by 40% during this time, also allowing for an average of 16 extra minutes of sleep in the evenings.

Importantly, the teenagers reported no negative experiences with social media during the experiment, feeling that reduced usage did not lead to missing out on connections with friends. This analysis follows a previous report titled 'Young Consumers and Social Media' published by the Danish competition authority in February 2025.