Regulate Addictive Algorithms, Don’t Weaken Privacy Protections For Everyone.

Stop pushing age-based social media bans and start holding platforms accountable for the addictive design choices driving real harm. Endless-scroll feeds, auto-play, and algorithmic "addiction loops" are deliberate engineering decisions made by profitable companies — that's the problem worth solving. Courts have already struck down minor-access bans as First Amendment violations, so these bills waste time we don't have. Invasive age-verification systems don't protect kids — they just surveil everyone to cover for corporate negligence. The EU's Digital Services Act proves there's a better path: mandatory algorithm disclosure, audit rights, and real penalties that don't require collecting sensitive data on millions of users. Research directly links auto-play and personalized recommendation engines to higher screen time and worse mental health outcomes across all age groups, so fixing this helps everyone. Regulate the algorithm. Require chronological feeds. Ban dark-pattern notification systems. That's how you address the root cause without trading one harm for another.