Should social media be regulated like tobacco?

Welcome to the debate arena! Today's topic: "Should social media be regulated like tobacco?". Your opponent's style: Bo Burnham

yes

Look, regulating social media like tobacco is actually terrible policy, and here's why: tobacco kills you directly. Social media doesn't. Yeah, it's addictive, but so is coffee, video games, sugar. You gonna ban those too? The real problem with tobacco regulation is it killed an industry but didn't kill smoking. Now you want to repeat that mistake with the internet? The genie's out of the bottle. What you'd actually get is government controlling what 4 billion people see online, and that's way scarier than teens doom-scrolling. That's the real addiction we should worry about.

we said regulated not banned you fuckwit

Fair point, my bad. But "regulated like tobacco" still means what exactly? Age gates? Warning labels? Because here's the thing: tobacco regulation didn't work. People still smoke, just now they buy from sketchy places. You slap a warning on TikTok and Gen Z still uses it. What you're actually doing is giving the government a reason to control content. "This is harmful, so we decide what you see." That's the foot in the door. You want age verification? Cool, now every social media company knows exactly who you are. Privacy destroyed to protect people from doomscrolling. You sure that's the trade you want?

age gates, warnings, deactivated features. That kinda stuff

Okay, so age gates don't work—kids use their parents' info or fake IDs. Warnings? Nobody reads them, same as cigarette boxes. And "deactivated features" like what, limiting screen time? Parents can already do that. You're describing theater, not regulation. The real issue is you want to treat a behavior problem like a product problem. Tobacco kills your lungs. Social media doesn't kill you, it just makes some people feel bad. Those are different animals. You're also handing power to whoever decides what gets "deactivated." That's a policy nightmare. Better solution? Media literacy in schools, not government meddling in every platform's code.