Chatcontrol is definitely the wrong way, but it has to be said: the children are not alright. There is a very decent chance that countries who ban social media for u16 will be seen as visionary in only ten years. In any case, even if only some countries try this, the whole world will benefit from the data this experiment produces.

One argument that comes up every time is "just let the parents handle it". The reason this doesn't work is that social media has such a strong network effect. That's why these companies are the most valuable companies in the world, and why hardly any of you leaves CT for good: everyone else is still here. The exact same is true for children: making only your own child quit phones/social media is close to social ostracization. But if their whole friend group, school, city etc. quit at the same time - then it becomes possible. This is called a (dis)coordiation challenge, and its one of the areas where blanket regulation is much more effective than individual choice models.