Benefits and Harms of Proposed Social Media Legislation

In this JAMA Pediatrics viewpoint, Radesky and co-author Megan Moreno weigh the likely benefits and drawbacks of legislative proposals aimed at reducing social media's association with adolescent wellbeing concerns, including age-verification mandates, parental-consent requirements, and blanket age restrictions. The authors caution against rushing to adopt some of the most popular proposals — particularly parental-permission systems and hard age cutoffs — arguing these can create privacy trade-offs, push younger users toward less-moderated platforms, or fail to address the underlying design features driving compulsive-feeling use. Instead, they point toward design-focused and enforcement-focused alternatives as more promising levers. The piece is explicitly framed as policy analysis and professional judgment rather than new data, positioning Radesky as a clinical voice weighing in directly on pending state and federal legislation.

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