A Social Norms Approach to Youth Social Media Design
Source: arXiv:2607.01807 · Published 2026-07-02 · By JaeWon Kim
TL;DR
This dissertation addresses a persistent gap in youth social media experiences: although adolescents and young adults desire authentic self-expression, less judgment, and more interpersonal trust, they rarely achieve these outcomes in practice. The author argues that this disconnect arises primarily from social norms embedded within platform designs rather than from individual user preferences or motivations. By applying social norms theory to mediated youth interactions, the work posits that platform norms govern behavior through pluralistic ignorance and perceived peer expectations, often causing youth to enact norms they privately reject.
The dissertation advances three main claims. First, platform norms constrain individual behavior by producing pluralistic ignorance where youth conform to undesired norms due to misperceptions of peers’ actions and approvals. Second, design interventions aiming to change behavior must address the broader normative environment rather than individual features or settings, emphasizing relational goals like privacy and trust as social norms upheld at the platform level. Third, the societal framing of “social media” as synonymous with a few mainstream apps limits policy and design to mitigating rather than reimagining social media, constraining the creation of youth-centric, trust-oriented alternatives. These insights motivate the author’s trajectory of co-designing and studying evidence-based independent platforms that signal and support trusted, authentic youth connections.
Key findings
- 28% of teens with public accounts reported privacy fears that diminished life quality but felt unable to act individually without supportive social norms (Section 3.1).
- Youth practice pluralistic ignorance by conforming to social media norms they privately reject, such as avoiding earnest posts to evade judgment (Section 3.1).
- Features like BeReal’s synchronized prompts and ephemerality transferred authentic-sharing norms effectively, enabling youth to share normally discouraged content; similar features borrowed by TikTok Now failed without the supporting normative environment (Section 3.2).
- Privacy and trust function better as social norms upheld across the entire platform rather than isolated individual settings, requiring coherent feature sets rather than isolated design interventions (Section 3.2).
- Discord’s design supports “third place” social media experiences by enabling persistent spaces and community-defined norms, exemplifying alternative platforms youth find friendship-supportive (Section 3.2).
- Mainstream social media platforms’ dominance in public discourse limits policy focus to harm mitigation on those platforms rather than fostering new social media paradigms reflecting youth aspirations (Section 3.3).
- A within-subjects crossover study with 99 youth (aged 15–25) in Korea and the U.S. tested a friendship-supportive platform, showing clearer normative signals yielded more consistent user behavior (Section 4).
- Youth envision social media beyond current mainstreams when prompted with exercises focusing on ambient, playful, low-stakes connection rather than doomscrolling and harm (Section 3.3).
Threat model
The work does not define an adversarial threat model typical of security papers. Instead, the 'threat' arises from normative constraints, peer pressure, and platform design choices that limit youth’s authentic self-expression and privacy. The adversary, if any, is the prevailing social norms and design patterns on mainstream social platforms that youths perceive as hostile or judgmental environments, rather than malicious actors with technical capabilities.
Methodology — deep read
The dissertation is grounded in a social norms theoretical framework applied to youth social media use, with empirical studies combining qualitative, design, and field methods to investigate normative influences. Threat model implicitly concerns youth users constrained by platform and peer norms, not malicious adversaries.
Data includes qualitative interviews, behavioral logs, and field deployments with youth aged 13–25 across multiple countries including Korea and the United States. One key study was a four-week within-subjects crossover deployment involving 99 youth aged 15–25, who alternated between control platform versions resembling mainstream apps and experimental versions embodying a trust-enabled privacy design framework. Data captured user posting behavior, privacy boundary regulation, and subjective experiences.
The trust-enabled privacy framework operationalizes social norms through features that signal relational goals such as privacy and trusted connection at the platform level rather than individual controls. For example, synchronized posting prompts and ephemeral content encourage sharing norms aligned with authenticity and low-stakes interaction.
Training and implementation details are not applicable; the work employs design research, user-centered field studies, and mixed methods rather than machine learning models. However, the author iteratively refined platform features between studies based on participant feedback highlighting the need to sharpen normative signals.
Evaluation protocol integrated behavioral metrics (posting frequency, privacy behaviors), longitudinal interviews, cross-national comparisons, and norm signaling assessments. Statistical details are not fully specified but comparisons between platform conditions are emphasized. The research also involves Asynchronous Remote Community studies to engage broader youth cohorts in collectively articulating norms and goals for healthier social media.
The research team released prior papers, but code and platform implementations are not stated as publicly available at this stage. The datasets consist of field data collected from youth participants under IRB-approved protocols. The approach exemplifies theory-driven, iterative co-design and empirical validation of social norms mechanisms rather than purely algorithmic contributions.
A concrete example: Youth participants using the experimental platform version with clear norm signals around privacy and trust engaged more in ephemeral, low-judgment sharing than on a control platform mimicking mainstream app behaviors. Interviews corroborated that participants perceived the environment as less performative and more supportive of authentic self-expression, directly evidencing how platform design shapes normative expectations and individual behavior.
Technical innovations
- Application of social norms theory (empirical and injunctive expectations) to mediated youth social media interactions to explain behavior diverging from private preferences.
- Framework treating relational goals such as privacy and trust as social norms upheld across the platform environment rather than isolated, user-controlled features.
- Use of norm-signaling features (e.g., synchronized posts, ephemeral content) to transfer and maintain constructive social norms within a youth social media platform.
- Reframing the youth social media problem space from harm mitigation on mainstream platforms to co-designing alternative platforms that consistently communicate friendship and trusted connection.
Datasets
- Youth field deployment dataset — 99 youth aged 15–25 — collected across Korea and the United States, proprietary and unpublished
- Qualitative interview datasets — 13 to 25-year-olds from multiple studies — unpublished
Baselines vs proposed
- Control platform resembling mainstream social media: lower authentic sharing and boundary regulation behaviors vs experimental friendship-supportive platform with trust-enabled privacy features: increased low-judgment, ephemeral sharing and perceived trust (Section 4).
- BeReal’s synchronized posting and ephemerality features: high norm transfer and user engagement vs TikTok Now’s adoption of similar features without clear normative context: diminished effectiveness (Section 3.2).
Limitations
- Limited sample size (99 participants) mainly from two countries limits generalizability.
- Lack of randomized controlled trials with blind conditions constrains causal claims about normative mechanisms.
- No adversarial threat evaluation since focus is normative/social rather than malicious attack models.
- Unclear statistical rigor details for behavioral analyses; more quantitative validation would strengthen findings.
- Code and platform implementations currently not public, hindering reproducibility.
- Focused on youth ages 13–25; findings may not extend to other age groups or platforms.
Open questions / follow-ons
- How can social norms signaling be quantitatively measured to predict behavioral outcomes in youth social media use?
- What normative mechanisms can sustain positive behaviors over longer time frames and larger, more diverse youth populations?
- How do various cultural contexts and social groups differ in their normative expectations and responses to platform design?
- Can these social norms approaches be integrated with algorithmic content moderation to further support trusted connections while managing harm?
Why it matters for bot defense
This research provides a deeper understanding that youth social media behaviors are heavily norm-driven and shaped by platform design—insights directly relevant to bot-defense and CAPTCHA efforts because normative environments influence user interaction consistency, susceptibility to manipulation, and engagement authenticity. Bot-defense systems should consider the social norms context governing human behavior on platforms, not just individual actions, to avoid misclassifying authentic but normically divergent interactions.
Moreover, the dissertation’s emphasis on signaling trustworthy environments suggests design cues that could support stronger user verification and boundary regulation without imposing intrusive controls. Bot-defense engineers could apply these principles by designing defenses and challenges that align with natural normative signals, fostering honest interaction and reducing user friction. Finally, rethinking social media beyond mainstream paradigms encourages innovation in platform-level defenses rather than bolt-on features, hinting at new architectures where bot-detection evolves alongside user norms.
Cite
@article{arxiv2607_01807,
title={ A Social Norms Approach to Youth Social Media Design },
author={ JaeWon Kim },
journal={arXiv preprint arXiv:2607.01807},
year={ 2026 },
url={https://arxiv.org/abs/2607.01807}
}