As progress on a potential social media ban for under-16s stalls in New Zealand, a world-leading expert on social media harm warns the time to act is now.
Ravi Iyer is a social psychologist and the Managing Director of the Psychology of Technology Institute, a project of the University of Southern California’s Neely Centre. He has unique insight into how social media platforms operate, having worked at Facebook from 2018 to 2022.
“I worked on newsfeed ranking, bullying and harassment, and comment ranking,” Iyer told Stuff. “What I learned was that you can't actually design a platform badly and then try to fix it through moderation. You actually have to design a platform better in the first place.”
After leaving Facebook, Iyer contributed to Jonathan Haidt’s influential book The Anxious Generation, whose publication coincided with a slew of social media regulations across the globe. A social media ban for under-16s is now in effect in Australia, with Spain, France, the UK, and many others exploring their own restrictions.
While experts disagree over how much the harms experienced by young people online are correlated with social media versus caused by it, Iyer says when it comes to some of the most extreme harms, the link is clear.
