The social media ban for under 16s is interesting as it feels like a low-stakes admission from government that social media use can be highly problematic.

The reasons for this are in the design of the platforms, and I would argue that it's probably not the under-16s who are most at risk from its most pernicious harms.

I don't think many under-16s were rioting in Southampton and Belfast over the last couple of weeks. That unrest was almost entirely social media-generated. #socialmedia

@martwritesstuff @noodlemaz It is, however, the wrong answer to the wrong question. It shouldn't be "how should our youths be regulated", it should be "how should corporations that exploit our youths be regulated".
@cstross @martwritesstuff @noodlemaz Not only that. Any such age restriction will end in *everyone* needing to prove their age, so it’s another surveillance hit and against, e.g., anonymity in the digital world. Plus, once this age verification is the base case, the platform owners will stop all other (costly) measures to make their platforms safe, as now there cannot be any minors on them by law, and users / parents are the ones carrying the legal burden.