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by emptystation 1166 days ago
Ads insensitive platforms to design a more and more addictive infinite feed. If they cannot profit from children scrolling endlessly, why would they want to enable children to scroll endlessly? If ads for children on social media are banned (somehow), kids' feeds will probably just become way more boring.
2 comments

Exactly. If we want to get a grip on the most damaging effects of social media, we have to correctly identify the incentives that has put us in current mess we are in.

Every commercial social media platform that I know of earns money primarily by selling and displaying personalized and targeted ads – so that is where we should start. The 'targeted' part can be addressed by strengthening privacy regulations and enforcing them vigorously, and the 'ads' part can be attenuated by banning ads made for and shown to kids and young people.

I disagree. Just because some group doesn't get fed ads anymore, doesn't magically cause the social media platform to become any less addictive.