In the same way, laws do not prevent people from killing other people. However, we (with a few exceptions) find it unethical to solve problems by killing the other party and make murder laws.

Too many companies offer a defense for behavior we find distasteful of, "It isn't illegal," as if the law draws the complete contours of ethical behavior. Generally, we look to laws to dictate punishment for violations of ethics. Of course the law also forbids things we find ethical, but that is another issue.

So no, it won't make social media less addictive, but perhaps it is time we started to formally define what behaviors we consider ethical for these types of interactions between businesses and consumers. With it defined perhaps respectable companies will start to act in the manner we grow to expect.

Completely agree. We don't need laws pointlessly micromanaging details. If we need laws now it's legislation from over 100 years into the future where these business ideas are not valid in the first place.

We do need laws. A parent cannot fight a fight versus ten-twenty billion/trillion dollar companies. Sugar in your cornflakes, sounds and graphics in your games, insane tracking on ads, and so on.

Those a-holes end up knowing more about your kid than you. And if you try to "fight" them by blocking their access to your kid, they got so many kids hooked up already that the exposure to garbage is unavoidable by some kid whose parents lost the fight or didn't bother to begin with.

A law will protect your kid from gambling in games with "chest full of surprises", and so on.

> A parent cannot fight a fight versus ten-twenty billion/trillion dollar companies

Of course they can. I won't buy my kids a Javelin from Raytheon, nor a smartphone with Facebook on. With or without laws stopping me.

That's fine until your teenager becomes a social outcast because they're not allowed to use the social media and messaging apps their peers use.