A generation ago (or probably 2 generations ago for many of you) my mother had a way of encouraging us toward critical thinking and thinking things through rather than following the crowd of our peers ("if Johnny jumped off the Empire State building would you too?") I'm not saying it always worked on me but, I always knew where she would stand on my choices... even if she didn't find out about all of them - lol. Now, there was no digital world or anything like that then, but to me, today's social interactions are still a parallel to the interactions we had back then.
As a parent, you don't have to abdicate your ability to be the "influencer" for your children. Certainly, then as now, some parents don't step up to that role - and even if you do step up, kids will mess up then and again - that's how we learn things. Bad influences cannot be eliminated. For me, it is best to try to prepare a child to deal with what they will inevitably find out there.
Measured regulation might help... or not. FAA banned smoking on airplanes, the Surgeon General put warnings on the packs - how much of that stopped kids from lighting up? What did help, certainly, was as a society, we decided smoking was not a smart choice - that is, we learned how to deal with the tobacco promoters' message. We passed that attitude to the next generation. When we do the same to social media, we should see the same result...hopefully.
