By Casey Barkan 

On May 29, the United Nations Human Rights Council posted a video on X featuring UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Türk stating that banning children from using social media is not the solution to ensuring their safety online. He says that the first step is to instead go straight to the source and address the predatory and addictive nature of many online platforms targeted at children. I think this is a very real and interesting conversation worth having. Not because bans are always wrong, but because sometimes, they do more harm than good.

Before we get into why bans fall short, it helps to understand exactly what parents are up against. These platforms are engineered environments that are built to keep users engaged as long as possible. Here’s what that actually looks like in practice:

  1. Infinite Scroll: There is no bottom of the page, and the feed never ends. This is intentional. Removing a natural stopping point means that children never get a cue to put the phone down, and the brain’s impulse to “just check one more thing” takes over.
  2. Autoplay: Videos and content play automatically without the child choosing to continue. What could start as watching one video could end up becoming watching twenty. The platform makes the next decision, so the child doesn’t have to.
  3. Persistent Notifications: Notifications of likes, comments, follows, and messages are all designed to ping constantly. This creates a loop of anticipation and reward that mirrors the same neurological pattern as gambling. Every buzz on the phone is a potential hit of dopamine.
  4. The Algorithm: The platforms learn what keeps each individual user watching longest and feed them more of it, which can quickly lead children down rabbit holes of increasingly extreme or harmful content without any deliberate searches.
  5. Designed for Adults, Used by Kids: Most of these platforms were not built with children in mind, but children use them anyway. The same features designed to

hook adults hit developing brains even harder, because impulse control and emotional regulation are still forming well into the teenage years.

The good news is that awareness is growing. Parents who understand how these platforms are engineered can be better equipped to talk to their kids about what they may experience online. Using built-in parental controls on devices can be a good first place to start, but it’s important to understand their limitations as well. A 2026 internal Meta study found that in-app (Facebook and Instagram) supervision tools like time limits and access restrictions had little measurable impact on teens’ compulsive social media use. A possible alternative is to set up device-free zones in homes, especially like in kids’ bedrooms at night. More importantly, however, supporting legislation that holds tech companies accountable for the products they build can enact real change. The UN has laid out a clear framework. Governments are starting to act. The more that parents understand what’s actually happening inside these platforms, the harder it gets to look the other way, and the louder the demand for change will get.

Conversation Starters:

  1. What do you use social media platforms for?
  2. Do you ever lose track of time when you’re on the platforms?
  3. What times of day do you scroll on social media?
  4. What kind of content do you consume online?
  5. How does it make you feel?

Learn More

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