Kuala Lampur, April 25 -- There is a comforting idea in policy circles: we do not need to restrict children's access to social media, because with enough regulation, education, and corporate responsibility, these platforms can be made safe from within.

It is reassuring, but it is also dangerously incomplete.

The recent joint letter by NGOs opposing a social media ban for under-16s frames the issue as a choice between rights and restrictions, between freedom and overreach. 

But that framing collapses the moment we ask a more basic question: When a system is already exposing children to harm at scale, what do you do first?

You reduce exposure, and everything else comes after.

1) Social media is not neutral

Today's social media pl...