Before we ban kids from social media completely, here's what we should try first

The debate over implementing age restrictions for social media and online services has gained traction, starting with Australia's recent ban on accounts for users under 16. Advocates cite research showing potential harms from youth social media use and note companies making their products safer in response to age limits. However, critics argue that age checks can infringe on privacy, security, and the right to participate in public life, pushing minors toward riskier alternatives like Telegram.

This debate resonates with the authors' experiences at New York University's Center for Business and Human Rights and their 15-year tenure at Google, where they are also parents. They propose two positive solutions to consider before adopting minimum-age restrictions. The first is enforcing targeted and proportionate restrictions.

To do this, a government would need to prove that specific platform features or controls are necessary, as each harm calls for a different solution. For instance, 21.3 million suspected online child sexual exploitation incidents were reported to the U.S. National Center for Missing and Exploited Children in 2025. Cyberbullying, affecting nearly one-third of American teens in the past 30 days, may be facilitated by certain features.

Keeping children from accessing these features and blocking adult strangers can address these issues without removing them from the service. Age-inappropriate content is challenging to define, and parental discretion may be better suited for making these calls. The second proposed initiative is examining and altering exploitative design patterns in social media, such as infinite scroll, autoplay, and algorithmic feeds, which affect all users, not just children.

Instead of a wholesale ban, platforms could restrict these features or turn them off by default unless adults opt in. Indonesia and Canada are taking a similar approach, requiring platforms to meet safety criteria before children can create accounts. The authors draw parallels to high-stakes safety systems, arguing that online age verification should also be subject to rigorous standards, as no user can independently verify platform safety and the consequences of failure are severe.