Some good thoughts on age-gating access to social media, from someone
who worked at Facebook for some years and helped create it
<https://www.stuff.co.nz/nz-news/360982163/your-kids-are-being-hurt-experts-plea-new-zealand-lawmakers-social-media-ban>:

    “I worked on newsfeed ranking, bullying and harassment, and
    comment ranking,” [Ravi] Iyer told Stuff. “What I learned was that
    you can't actually design a platform badly and then try to fix it
    through moderation. You actually have to design a platform better
    in the first place.”

As for the idea that legal restrictions just drive young people to use
VPNs or lie about their age or whatever, he points out that peer
pressure is the main driver of behaviour, so it’s not necessary to
have a 100% loophole-proof policy in order to see good results:

    Addressing concerns about teens bypassing potential legislation
    using virtual private networks (VPNs) or children being pushed to
    darker corners of the internet, Iyer argues that these are not
    reasons to delay action. He says norm changes—where children feel
    less social pressure to be on platforms—are already occurring, and
    the goal is not immediate 100% compliance. He compares the policy
    to drinking ages or speed limits, where partial compliance still
    yields significant social benefits.

And yes, he has some ideas on how a platform can be better designed.
His approach also has the benefit of singling out problem platforms,
not by trying to say what is or isn’t a “social media” platform, but
in terms of the specific characteristics that cause problems:

    Iyer suggests moving away from broad, purpose-based definitions
    and instead focusing on harmful features, such as engagement-based
    algorithms, infinite scroll, and "streak" gamification—where users
    are incentivised to return to the platform every day.

Of course, such features are precisely those that maximize ad revenue
for the platform companies. So don’t expect them to be happy about
this kind of focus.
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