Children are not the only ones who need help putting down screens

In late 2025, Australia famously introduced the world’s first all-out ban on social media for under-16s, but countries including the UAE, Brazil, Vietnam, China, Malaysia and Indonesia have already taken steps to implement measures to control, and in some places limit, children's access to social media. Meanwhile, the likes of Spain, Portugal, Denmark, Greece, and, most recently, Canada, are reported to be considering implementing measures to curb access for children.

The fact that an increasing number of countries are seeking to manage, and where necessary limit, children's access to social media is sensible: children are the most vulnerable user group on social media and often lack the self-control to put their phones away.

But for all the existing and proposed legislation aimed at protecting young people, the welfare of another massive user base is being overlooked. Adults are also at risk from social media. After all, this demographic is highly prone to addiction, which negatively affects mental wellbeing.

Just as we protect adults from the negative effects of gambling or smoking, we now need to protect people from social media addiction. Of course, banning adults from social media use is not a viable option. More needs to be done, then, to curb the addictive nature of social media.

Many of the world’s largest platforms rely on addictive design to increase the time spent on their sites. If governments are serious about tackling social media-caused addiction, they need to move quickly to push these platforms to become less addictive. And addiction – as we know – is not the only threat posed by social media.

Algorithms amplify misleading and divisive information (with the notable example of X), making societies more fractious and threatening democracy. This is happening because, quite frankly, users are more likely to interact with this content, and algorithms favour the most engaging content.

Malevolent actors such as Russia are known to exploit this phenomenon. This shows that the engagement-maximising design of social media, while beneficial for business, is deeply harmful to society.

So, what’s the answer for protecting adults, as well as kids, from the harms of social media? Some might default to censorship. But censoring misleading content is not only incompatible with free and open societies but is also often impractical.

Better alternatives exist: banning advertising revenue on social media, outlawing addictive algorithms, and/or launching less addictive public social media akin to public broadcasting. These measures all share the goal of preventing social media platforms from maximising the time users spend on them.

We must protect social media users – of all ages – in the same manner in which we seek to protect consumers in any industry. Addressing addictive algorithms and misinformation must be a priority for governments. This can only be achieved by regulating the industry in the same way you would with other major industries, from energy to gambling.

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Christoph Mueller Bloch is Assistant Professor of information systems, data analytics and operations at ESSEC Business School and Raffaele Ciriello is Senior Lecturer of business information systems at the University of Sydney.

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