They don't give an explanation, just say the the researchers' claims are wrong. Here is the quoted article:

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/ce32w7we01eo

Do you define TikTok and Snapchat as social media? Because teens are definitely interested in those.

Over 20% of adolescents met criteria for “pathological” or addictive social media use, with an additional ~70% at risk of mild compulsive use. Teens themselves often recognize the problem—many say social media makes them feel “addicted” or unable to stop scrolling, even when it negatively affects their mood. The Surgeon General highlighted that teens commonly report social media makes them feel worse “but they can’t get off of it“

Do people think it is practical to watch children 24/7, including while the child is at school and the parent is at work?

Meta markets products as safe for kids and offers products to reinforce this for parents and regulators but they’re not actually keeping kids safe. Meanwhile, kids die. That’s less an issue of parenting and more one of corporate responsibility.

How is it possible for parents of average technological ability and limited means to do what a multi billion dollar platform cannot?

In concept you're not necessarily wrong. But I think this is one of those "why can't people just <do something that's impossible for people who don't live the life you imagine everyone to live>?"

Back in the day, hordes of kids were just set loose on the city to find empty lots to fuck around in, because a lot of families are just scraping by and the whole concept of full-time supervision of children is laughably naive. Now they're on the TikToks and the Facestagrams, which has its own set of advantages and disadvantages.

> Zuckerberg famously doesn’t (didn’t?) let his children use Facebook. Perhaps everyone else should take a hint.

And I think he was right to do this.

But he’s also the person who created Facebook, who allowed it to be used by children, so it’s extremely hypocritical, no?

Why doesn’t he make Facebook for over 18s only?

Money is why.

He’ll protect his own children whilst at the same time he thinks it’s fine to harm other peoples’. He think this whilst knowing full well that not all parents are created equal and that many parents won’t (or perhaps can’t) do what is best for their children’s welfare relating to social media. And this is because he values making money more, and because he’s an out of touch and elitist manchild who refuses to take responsibility for what he’s created.

So, yes, it’s Meta’s - and specifically Mark Zuckerberg’s - fault that children are exposed to harmful content, and both they and he should absolutely be held to account for it.

Fundamentally social media companies are media companies. Just because it’s a new form of media doesn’t mean they should get to dodge the scrutiny and responsibilities other media companies are subject to.

It's kind of amazing just how horrifically wrong this is all playing out. It actually feels like it's playing out worse than the worst case scenarios I could come up with.

First there is the obvious question: who is giving teenagers unfettered access to the Internet? Phones cost money. Home Internet costs money. Mobile data costs money. Best you can say is kids could get online using McDonalds WiFi with a phone they bought for lawnmower money, but we don't have to play pretend. We know how they got phones and Internet, the same way kids and teens were exposed to TV. Apparently though, despite this obvious first step in accountability, it's just absolutely all shoulders. This step is apparently so unimportant it has been completely not worth mentioning. I hate to just bitch about parents because I absolutely know parenting isn't easy, is important for society, and that the conditions we're in make it hard to feel "in control" anymore. On the other hand, this isn't really exactly a new problem. All the way back in 1999, South Park: Bigger, Longer and Uncut basically addressed the same god damn thing. And I don't mean to equate obscenity on TV with the kinds of safety risks that the Internet can pose, but rather particularly the deflection of blame that parents engage in for things they directly facilitated. Seriously, the "Blame Canada" lyrics somehow feel as prescient as ever now:

    Blame Canada
    Shame on Canada
    For the smut we must stop, the trash we must smash
    The laughter and fun must all be undone
    We must blame them and cause a fuss
    Before somebody thinks of blaming us

Though honestly, I absolutely think that this doesn't mean social media companies aren't to blame. Everyone knew we were selling ads to kids. I think that Twitter and Tumblr were extremely violently aware that they were basically selling sex to kids, and if anything just tried as much as possible to ensure their systems had no way for them to be able to account for it (on Twitter many people have always wanted an option to mark their accounts as 18+ only, but as far as I know you still can't. A few years ago I think they added a flag they can apply to accounts that hides them, but it's still not possible. And although Twitter has sensitive content warnings... It doesn't actually let you specify that something is explicit. Only that it is sensitive, or maybe even that it contains nudity. I think this blanketing is intentional.) For their role in intentionally blurring lines so they can sell sex and ads to kids while mining their data, they should be penalized.

But instead, we're going to destroy the entire Internet and rip it apart. Even though the very vast majority of the Internet really never had any problems that crop up with kids on social media to any particularly alarming scale, we're going to basically apply broad legislation that enforces ISP level blocks. In my state there was a proposal to effectively ban VPNs and Internet pornography altogether!

I think ripping apart the Internet like this is basically evil for all parties involved. It's something regulators can do to show that they really care about child safety. It's something parents can support in stead of taking accountability for their role in not doing the thing called "parenting". And I bet all of the massive social media companies will make it out of this just fine, essentially carving their own way around any legislation, while the rest of the Internet basically burns down, as if we really needed anything to help that along.

We will never learn.