DADDY ISSUES:

I fully agree that social-media platforms should reform their speech policies. I also agree that too many Americans spend too much time on their phones. But there is a dramatic difference between declaring that something is a problem and believing that government should act to solve that problem. In fact, the very determination that government should act -- rather than relying on a free citizenry to exercise its liberty responsibly -- can be harmful to a nation and to a culture.

The SMART Act is a remarkable attempt at micromanaging the design of popular online products. It would ban, for example, "infinite scroll" (the feature that allows you to thumb rapidly through a Facebook, Instagram, or Twitter feed), the "autoplay" of a new video after the user finishes the one he initially selected (on sites like YouTube, but not on the ultimate autoplay device in American homes, your television), and certain gaming features on social-media apps, such as Snapchat's "streaks" (which record how many consecutive days you've communicated with friends).

Welcome to the Republican Daddy state. It responds to a social challenge with a blunt instrument that hurts responsible users of popular applications -- which is to say, the overwhelming majority of all users -- while not providing any concrete evidence that it will cure the extraordinarily complicated underlying problem it's attempting to address: the rise of anxiety, depression, and polarization that correlates with the rise of social media and the smartphone but is caused by a multiplicity of factors.

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