How much data did we need before we understood the harmful societal effects of smoking and implemented restrictions?
Actually, it was a lot.
A lot of data was needed because the cigarette companies wanted to milk their golden goose as long as possible. The cost of paying class action lawsuits in the future was far less than the cash they could make in the moment.
This is the same incentive today with social media and their app makers.
Some parents try to organize their other classroom parents together in a coalition to limit the apps. This seems to work but it’s so few and far between.
A broad societal moratorium on social media for people under 16yo diminishes NOTHING and probably helps millions and millions of kids and then these kids as they enter adulthood.
It would also help parents. I, personally, have strict social media rules for myself and my kids. And I will keep pushing back on my kids when they ask for instagram because that’s my job as their dad.
But having a broad moratorium would make the lives of all parents far simpler and, in hindsight, will be proven as the right public health policy thing to have done.
The preponderance of the evidence gets ever more preponderant: here's a meta-analysis of longitudinal studies, in JAMA.
Important finding for setting 16 as the age minimum: