The last few months have been a turning point. In late March, New Mexico Attorney General Raul Torrez won his case against Meta, with a jury finding that Facebook and Instagram's parent company had engaged in "unconscionable" trade practices targeting children. Days later, a California jury ruled that Meta and YouTube had addicted a young girl to their platforms. And Australia is now four months into its landmark social media ban for kids under 16.

At the center of this movement is social psychologist Jonathan Haidt, whose New York Times bestseller The Anxious Generation laid out the case for a phone-free childhood. What once read as provocation is now policy: France and Malaysia have passed their own bans, and Canada and the US are weighing similar moves. But many researchers — and young people themselves — aren't convinced. Ava Smithing argues that social media companies need to reimagine their business models entirely, not just lock kids out.

In this live conversation from Columbia University's Bollinger Forum, Haidt and Smithing meet across the generational and ideological divide. They dig into Haidt's "Great Rewiring" theory, the toll of "attentional destruction," and the tension between protecting children and honoring the reality of Gen Z's digital-first communities.

Editor's note: We are also honoured to inform you that Left To Their Own Devices was just nominated for a prestigious Peabody Award. "We are grateful and honored to receive a Peabody nomination. We created Left to Their Own Devices to shine a light on the experiences of young people online," said Ava Smithling, host of Left To Their Own Devices. "We believe these stories deserve to be heard, and more importantly, to be believed. A Peabody nomination validates our work and recognizes the gravity of the harm these platforms inflict on young people. This recognition makes our team's work and the fight for safer online community spaces harder to ignore."