Lancet research calls for big tech regulation to reduce addictive design features
University of Toronto researchers argue that social media platforms use addictive design features that undermine user well-being. They suggest that regulators should target these business models rather than blaming parents or individual screen time.
Why it matters
This perspective challenges the status quo of digital regulation and highlights the neurobiological impact of addictive tech design on youth.
Even as social media platforms are deliberately designed to be addictive, screen time issues are often still portrayed as a personal lack of self-control, or as parental failure, University of Toronto associate professor and study co-author Jay Shaw said. Laura Proctor/The Globe and Mail
The authors of a new, three-paper series published in The Lancet say it’s time for a major perspective shift that moves beyond fixating on youth screen time, to regulating big tech’s business models and addicting design features, which monetize ever more of people’s data, time and attention at the cost of their well-being.
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