Why social media age bans are not the answer

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When I joined Facebook in 2009, I believed in the mission that founder Mark Zuckerberg espoused: to connect and empower people around the world. We all know how that turned out. Meta, now the parent company of Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp, is focused on generating as much engagement as possible, which has led to platforms that addict, enrage, misinform and polarize users.

I worked at Facebook for 15 years before becoming a whistleblower. I was in the rooms where smart people built and marketed the features that encourage compulsive use — such as infinite scroll, autoplay and algorithmic feeds. These design choices were made deliberately, with the goal of maximizing profit above all else.

Fortunately, the world is waking up to the harm caused by social media, especially to young people. In early July, an independent panel presented its final report on how the EU can keep children safe online to European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, with a legislative proposal expected after the summer.

While several EU countries plan to adopt a blanket age ban, the report advocates banning the toxic design features directly — a strategy that both scientific consensus and public opinion support. If governments really want to keep kids safe, they must require social media platforms to prove their safety — as is already required of food companies and car manufacturers — to gain access to the teenage market.

Banning toxic design features directly is supported by both scientific consensus and public opinion Kelly Stonelake

Banning toxic design features directly is........

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