The reality is that something as mundane as social media can have an incredibly debilitating effect on the developing brain of an adolescent.

Corporations treat kids like an experimental playground. I mean, you can just look at the global drop in childrens' reading, writing, and spelling abilities and realise maybe replacing pen and paper for laptops has been a net negative for their developmental pathways.

I don't think banning it for the underage is specifically bad, but it can't be enforced without some bullshit that is bad, and won't work anyway. However, I think it's plenty bad for adults too. It either needs moderation, or it needs to be not allowed in general. I'm all for people being allowed to do what they want, but there are points where consumers need protections, and algorithms manipulating them, in the way social media does, is very harmful and needs protections against.

Can't we just ban it for everyone and be done with it.

I think that instead of a ban we need to teach them how to use them resposably (and not with those stupid videos the gov makes, teenagers just laugh at them) and also to add regulations to ban those algorithms that push hatred and bullshit