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There's a popular "digital rights" perspective that turns "not having kids on social media before 14 or 16" into a binary. That allows to make this a thing about overreach and censorship and all that. In combination with the complexities of ensuring access/restrictions it builds a great straw man.

But I do totally think that just throwing kids into general social media (think Instagram, TikTok but also Bluesky or Mastodon) is harmful to them and is just us older people being lazy and not wanting to give them time to grow into this digital life.

But it's not a binary. There is value in creating spaces for kids to express themselves and find community and their own voice. Question is how to build that in ways to protect them - not just from creeps but also the negative side effects of many commercial social media platforms.

It's not "but Kids need to learn to live with social media so let's throw them on TikTok". It's about figuring out ways for kids (or TBH some older people as well) to make those experiences in the digital "non-swimmer's pool". (Not sure if digital swimmers exist.)