Ban Kids From Social Media, Lose the Internet's Best Ideas

Here’s a proposal that sounds good on paper but falls apart the moment you think about it: ban everyone under sixteen from social media. Governments around the world are increasingly embracing this idea as a fix for the harms the internet poses to young people. But a recent survey reveals something uncomfortable—these bans don’t actually work. And there’s something else we’re losing in the process: the cultural engine that keeps the online world interesting.

Host Kate Lindsay and internet culture writer Tatum Hunter dig into this paradox on a new episode of the podcast. The uncomfortable truth is that kids have been the architects of the internet’s most defining moments. The memes we share, the apps we adopt, the trends that explode across platforms—so much of what makes social media worth using originates with young people. They’re the ones setting the tone, experimenting with new formats, and pushing boundaries in ways that shape how we all communicate online.

Strip kids out of that ecosystem, and you don’t just lose their participation. You lose their creativity. You lose the voices and perspectives that make the internet feel alive instead of like a sterile marketplace designed entirely by algorithm. The internet becomes worse for all of us—flatter, less surprising, more corporate.

But here’s where the argument gets even messier: bans don’t address the actual problem. They’re a shortcut, a way for policymakers to look like they’re doing something without tackling the real question of how to build a healthier internet. The root causes—addictive design, algorithmic amplification of harmful content, the prioritization of engagement over user wellbeing—those persist whether kids can log in or not. So you end up with younger people who are worse off (banned from spaces where their peers are), and the systemic issues that caused the problems in the first place still thriving unchecked.

The episode explores what we’re really sacrificing when we take this approach and what it would actually take to protect young people without poisoning the parts of social media that matter. Spoiler: it’s harder than a ban, but it might actually work.