New ADS Act Requires Meta, TikTok, and X to Report on Mental Health PSAs for Five Years

The Advancing Digital Support for Mental Health Services Act (ADS Act) is all about transparency and nudging the biggest players in digital media toward public service. Simply put, this bill requires the largest social media platforms and online services—think the ones with over 100 million unique monthly users—to start reporting exactly how much they are contributing to mental health awareness. Starting one year after the law is enacted, and continuing for five years, these platforms must send annual reports to the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) detailing the number, percentage, and estimated dollar value of the public service advertisements (PSAs) they ran for mental and behavioral health resources.

The Fine Print on Free Ads

This isn’t about just any ad; the bill specifically defines a “Public Service Advertisement” as one the platform runs for free, without receiving payment. Crucially, these PSAs must promote resources that address serious issues like self-harm, suicide, eating disorders, substance abuse, or social isolation. To keep things focused on impact, platforms also have to specify how many of these free ads promote local or regional resources, and how many promote free mental health care services. This is a smart move, aiming to ensure the PSAs aren't just general awareness campaigns but are actually connecting people with actionable help nearby.

Who’s Covered and What’s Tracked

The “Covered Digital Advertising Platform” definition captures the giants: any platform that earns revenue from ads, primarily acts as a forum for user-generated content (like posts, videos, or messages), and clears that 100 million user threshold. If you’re a user on one of these sites, you won't see a direct change in your feed right away, but the platforms will now have a formalized incentive to dedicate ad space to public health. For the platforms themselves, this means a new administrative burden, requiring them to accurately track and assign an “estimated dollar value” to the space they give away, which is a metric that can be tricky to nail down consistently.

The Real-World Impact and the Sunset Clause

The biggest benefit here is transparency. Right now, platforms can claim they are doing a lot for mental health, but this bill creates a public, standardized scorecard. The FTC is required to summarize all this platform data annually and report it publicly to Congress, giving policymakers—and the rest of us—a clear view of who is stepping up and by how much. If you’re a parent worried about your teenager’s mental health, or a school counselor looking for resources, this bill indirectly pressures platforms to increase the volume of helpful, local information they display.

However, it’s worth noting the temporary nature of this legislation. All these reporting requirements are set to expire, or “sunset,” after five years. This gives the government a five-year window to collect data and assess the impact of platform contributions without making the regulation permanent. It’s a trial run for transparency. While the intent is solid—getting the biggest media companies to dedicate free ad space to critical public health issues—the devil will be in the details of that “estimated dollar value” calculation, which could be prone to creative accounting if the FTC isn't vigilant during the reporting process.