It's hard for a province/country to ban an app/category of app for minors, no? Maybe it's relatively easy to ban the app/website outright in your jurisdiction's borders, but that should be the last resort, if it is to be considered at all, since it is a huge blow to freedom on the web and really doesn't solve much since any manner of app can be just as dangerous.

This is in no way the same thing as policing "creating algorithms". We don't/can't go after Labatt for "creating beer" (it was tried...). I agree, writing laws is challenging, but even professional law makers can't get it right, not in the sense that they aren't skillful enough to get it right, but in the sense that it is not possible. We're seeing this with Porn Hub in certain US states. Local laws are just not effective in enforcing a multinational Internet service. To get back to the original point, this is why you might want to try something other than "having the government pass laws about restricting social media for youth under a certain age".

I believe that social media could be transformatively positive for society. But companies aren’t pursuing that, they are pursuing engagement in search of profit. We now know that engagement has significant harm in society.

It’s time to do ‘something’ and we need to start having conversations on what that something is, so we don’t just do the obvious and force everyone to submit a government id for access.

Well, like it says on the top of this web page, the Ontario school board is suing social media giants. You seem passionate about this, as do they, so it sounds like you might be interested to start a conversation with them.