Can we focus on the algorithm as the problem?

Lately, I’ve been feeling puzzled by the growing movement to ban children below a certain age from accessing social media. It seems to be largely influenced by Jonathan Haidt’s book The Anxious Generation, which tries to link the rise of smartphones and social media to the decline in children’s mental health. While Haidt presents his argument in a way that sounds both legitimate and well-researched, his narrow focus on the release of the iPhone in 2007 overlooks a multitude of other societal changes that have also shaped today’s world. This article on TechDirt does a great job highlighting the key flaws in his book.

Now that I’ve gotten that off my chest, I’d like to propose one restriction that I think could actually improve social media’s impact on society as a whole. Instead of focusing on age-based bans, I suggest we shift our attention to the algorithms that curate users’ timelines. I’m not advocating for a complete ban on algorithms, but I do believe they should be more transparent, and users should have the option to disable them if they choose.

What do you think about the focus on age-based bans, will it actually help?