"This is one of the only issues on which there is a consensus - between right and left, religious and secular"

In the Western world, the campaign against social media platforms is intensifying: Australia was the first country where a law prohibiting the use of social networks under the age of 16 came into effect, and Britain, other European countries, and the USA are promoting steps to restrict access and implement strict supervision. Currently, a central trial is being conducted in a US federal court where 29 states are suing Meta, claiming it intentionally created addictive mechanisms and harmed the mental health of teenagers while hiding information from the public.

In Israel, a new public opinion poll conducted by the Louis Brandeis Institute for Society, Economy and Democracy and analyzed by Dr. Tal Alovitz, shows that regulating social media is one of the most agreed-upon issues in the Israeli public: 81.6% of citizens believe it is important for the State of Israel to regulate social networks through legislation, and only 9.2% believe one can rely on the networks to supervise themselves without state intervention.

The most significant finding for policy purposes is not only the intensity of support but its distribution: this is one of the few issues in Israel that is not divided by right and left, nor by the degree of religiosity. Among the Jewish public, no statistically significant difference was found between right-wing, center, and left-wing voters, nor between secular, traditional, religious, and Haredi citizens. Also, no significant difference was found between men and women.

Protecting children at the top of the priorities

When asked to choose only one area where regulation is most urgent, the answer is unequivocal: child protection was chosen by 47.8% of the public — more than twice as much as any other area. Fraud and impersonation came in second place (27.2%), meaning both areas together constitute a top priority for 75% of the public. They were followed by bots and foreign influence (13%), privacy (6.2%), responsibility for algorithms (2.8%), transparency (1.2%), and only 1.8% believe there is no need for regulation at all.

The urgency of the fraud issue comes against the background of data showing that one in three Israelis (34%) has personally or within their close family been exposed to fraud or damage on a social network.

Broad support for all regulation tools

86.4% support imposing responsibility on networks for the content they promote (90% in the Jewish public, 72% in the Arab public). 86.2% support requiring verification that every account belongs to a real person (90.2% in the Jewish public, 70% in the Arab public). 86% favor mandatory bot labeling, 79.4% support a struggle against foreign influence on elections, 79% favor limiting the commercial use of personal information, and 75.8% support setting a minimum age of 16 for opening an account.

Support for legislative intervention stems from a deep lack of trust in the networks' ability or desire to supervise themselves: only 12.8% trust the networks to protect user privacy without government oversight. Furthermore, the fear of harming freedom of expression — the main argument against regulation — does not recruit a majority, as only 31.4% believe it is better to avoid state intervention.

The gap between principle and personal willingness

Alongside the 86.2% support for requiring networks to ensure real-person verification, when the question becomes personal — would you be willing to identify yourself with an ID card — support drops to 49.2% in the general public (54.5% in the Jewish public and 28% in the Arab public). However, exposure to damage changes the picture: among those who have been exposed to harm on the network, the willingness to verify identity with an ID card jumps to 62.4%, and support for legislation reaches 87.1%.

Gaps between generations and sectors

There is an intergenerational difference in intensity, not direction: support for regulation crosses all age groups (79.5% among 18–34 year olds compared to 82.9% among 55 and older). However, as age increases, support rates for specific tools are higher. In the Arab public, a clear majority favors regulation across all tools (between 65% and 73%), but with lower intensity than in the Jewish public. Additionally, privacy was ranked by Arab respondents as much more urgent for regulation (18% compared to 3.2% in the Jewish public).

The survey was conducted for the Brandeis Institute among a representative sample of 500 people aged 18 and over in Israel between July 23 and July 28, 2026, with a maximum sampling error of ±4.4% at a 95% confidence level.

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Israel is sleeping on the job, the duty is on the manufacturer

Adv. Yehudit Pintov, a senior research fellow at the Brandeis Institute and author of the report "Trapped in the Net," explains that the findings reflect a rare consensus but emphasize the deep gap compared to global trends: "All over the world there is regulation that protects children and youth, and only here in Israel there is silence. The survey shows an overwhelming wall-to-wall agreement that protecting children is the most urgent issue to regulate. In the Western world, this is a cross-party issue, based on the understanding that social networks have become a dangerous space for children."

According to Pintov, claims regarding the inability to enforce prohibitions do not exempt companies from responsibility: "The responsibility for enforcement must be placed on the platforms. These are the most powerful and richest technology companies in the world. Just as a car manufacturer is responsible for the integrity of brakes and seat belts, recent US rulings determine that networks have the responsibility of a manufacturer."

Pintov compares the move to historical health reforms: "In terms of public health regulation, even if the law initially led to 20% or 40% of users leaving the networks, that is a significant achievement. When smoking was banned in public places in England in 2007, the rate dropped initially by only two or three percent, but a decade later there were two million fewer smokers." She notes that the prefrontal cortex, responsible for emotional regulation, develops only towards our 20s, making youth vulnerable to social media. "When did they start introducing protected profiles for young people? Only when regulation and public pressure began."

Pintov details the urgent steps Israel must take:

1. Adoption of international legislation (aligning with the DSA and DMA).

2. Implementation of Safety by Design (safety as a default).

3. Handling algorithms and content recommendations (limiting automatic recommendations).

4. Stopping addiction mechanisms (limiting push notifications and algorithmic urgency).

5. Restoring governance and legal responsibility (requiring an official representative in Israel).

"What drives the networks in the end is solely profit considerations," concludes Pintov. "The role of the government, regardless of its political identity, is to set new rules of the game that will protect our children."