So… Yes all this is sorta/kinda true, remember I used to work there once (great place to work, awful company). It isn’t by design or on-purpose I don’t think, at least not from the perspective I had back then.
What really needs to happen here in general, and I’ve said it before; is this:
Profiting off of user-generated data and metadata should be made illegal.
Social Media (systems) don’t need to be regulated beyond not allowing minors to access social media. But if you enact the changes to laws (see above) such that profiting off of userdata is made illegal, then you minors can be potentially “safe” from predators. Let’s be honest, predators are the “big tech” companies that make this shit™ highly addictive to the point where it “rots your brain”.