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Topline
Surgeon General Vivek Murthy called Monday for Congress to pass legislation mandating social media platforms feature a warning about the harm they pose to teens’ mental health, after the nation’s highest health official raised the alarm last year about the impact of social media on young people.
Key Facts
In an op-ed for The New York Times, Murthy said a Surgeon General’s warning label should be required on social media platforms, “stating that social media is associated with significant mental health harms for adolescents.”
The label would be similar to those required for tobacco products, which warn of the health impacts associated with smoking and using products with nicotine.
Murthy noted that putting warning labels would not “make social media safe for young people,” but pointed to studies noting that the similar warning labels for tobacco products show they “can increase awareness and change behavior,” as well as polls suggesting parents could be persuaded by a warning label to monitor or limit their child’s social media use.
The Surgeon General previously issued an advisory in 2023 warning about the impacts of social media use on youth mental health, which noted “the current body of evidence indicates that while social media may have benefits for some children and adolescents, there are ample indicators that social media can also have a profound risk of harm to the mental health and well-being of children and adolescents.”
Meta, Snap, TikTok and YouTube have not yet responded to requests for comment.
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Crucial Quote
“Why is it that we have failed to respond to the harms of social media when they are no less urgent or widespread than those posed by unsafe cars, planes or food?” Murthy wrote in his op-ed Monday. “These harms are not a failure of willpower and parenting; they are the consequence of unleashing powerful technology without adequate safety measures, transparency or accountability.”
Big Number
96%. That’s the share of U.S. teens ages 13 to 17 who say they use the internet at least daily, according to a Pew Research survey conducted in September and October 2023, including 46% who say they’re online “almost constantly” and 47% who say they use the internet “several times a day.” That’s significantly up from the 24% of teens who reported being online “almost constantly” in 2014 and 2015.
What To Watch For
Whether Congress will take up Murthy’s warning label suggestion, though the impacts of social media use on teens has been an issue that both parties have expressed concerns about—with Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., accusing tech executives in January of having “blood on your hands.” Murthy also suggested passing legislation that bans features making social media platforms more addictive, like infinite scrolling and autoplay; banning social media platforms from collecting sensitive data from children and requiring them to publicly report any data on the health effects of their products, to tackle concerns about social media’s mental health impact. Murthy also called on schools, parents and pediatricians to ban phones in schools or stop kids from using them at certain times, and speak about the risks of social media with patients and their parents.
Key Background
Social media use among teens has become a growing source of concern as studies have suggested a link between using the platforms and mental health issues. A 2019 study found using social media for more than three hours a day raised teens’ risk for mental health concerns including depression and anxiety, while in a 2022 survey amongst teens, roughly half of respondents said social media makes them feel “lonely and isolated” at least sometimes, and 46% said it makes them feel worse about their body. Thirty-three states brought a lawsuit against Meta—which owns Facebook and Instagram—in October 2023 over the platforms’ impacts on children and teens, arguing the company misled the public about the impacts its products can have on younger users and employed “psychologically manipulative” features to make their platforms more addictive; the litigation is pending. Leaders of social media companies testified to Congress in Januaryabout the impacts their products have on younger users. Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg and Snap CEO Evan Spiegel apologized to parents of children who have been victimized on social media—but Zuckerberg claimed, “The existing body of scientific work has not shown a causal link between using social media and young people having worse mental health.”
Further Reading
Surgeon General: For Our Kids’ Safety, Social Media Platforms Need a Health Warning (New York Times)
Meta Sued By 33 States Over ‘Substantial Dangers’ For Kids On Instagram And Facebook (Forbes)
