I disagree with a social media ban. I think it could be used as a temporary moratorium in order to compel platforms to basically create better systems design directly and then allow younger users back on platforms, but I think it's a temporary, band-aid solution.
What happens with a ban is that we end up basically regulating the user rather than the systems that are actually causing the harm. I would suggest, as I just mentioned, regulating instead the systems design to address the core issues like attention maximization and the spread of harmful content, instead of just regulating young users, which also, of course, raises a host of privacy concerns as well.
In the project that I mentioned in my opening remarks, Gen(Z)AI, we did this major consultation with thousands of young people across Canada. None of them suggested that a social media ban would be a good policy option for this. These were young people who wouldn't actually be subject to a ban. These were young people aged 17 to 23. The argument that they didn't want a ban just because they would be subject to it doesn't actually hold in this case.
I think it shows that young people realize that platforms have been left to make their own decisions, and now the government needs to act in a way that actually addresses the harm that's being caused by them.