U.S. Surgeon General Dr. Vivek Murthy has urged Congress to mandate warning labels on social media platforms similar to those found on cigarette packs.
Murthy’s opinion, detailed in a guest essay he wrote for The New York Times, showcased the surgeon general’s growing concern over the impact of social media on the mental health of youth in the United States.
“The mental health crisis among young people is an emergency, and social media has emerged as an important contributor,” Murthy wrote.
Statistics show that up to 95% of adolescents aged 13 to 17 use social media, with a large portion engaging for multiple hours daily. This frequency of usage, some have argued, parallels the addictive dimension of tobacco, therefore possibly requiring a similar type of regulation.
“Social media today is like tobacco decades ago: It’s a product whose business model depends on addicting kids. And as with cigarettes, a surgeon general’s warning label is a critical step toward mitigating the threat to children,” said Josh Golin, director of Fairplay, an organization that advocates against marketing to children, the Associated Press reported.
Aside from the addictive aspect of social media, there are risks to mental health that must be considered.
“Adolescents who spend more than three hours a day on social media face double the risk of anxiety and depression symptoms, and the average daily use in this age group, as of the summer of 2023, was 4.8 hours,” Murthy wrote.
He cited statistics showing that nearly half of teens who use social media say it makes them feel worse about their bodies.
Despite existing restrictions prohibiting children under 13 from signing up for social media platforms, loopholes persist, enabling underage use. Efforts by platforms like TikTok to implement usage limits for minors have also proven ineffective, as young users find ways to bypass these controls easily, according to AP.
In response to mounting public pressure and regulatory scrutiny, tech executives from major platforms, including Meta and TikTok, have appeared before Congress, pledging improved safety measures. But Murthy expressed skepticism of their efforts.
“Americans need more than words. We need proof,” he wrote.
The warning labels that Murthy proposed would prominently caution users and parents about the mental health risks associated with prolonged social media use among adolescents, reported AP News. He claimed such labels could increase awareness and potentially modify behaviors, much like warnings on cigarette packages have purportedly done.
But more than warning labels are needed, according to Murthy. He wrote that legislative action is imperative to enforce stricter regulations and safeguard young users from “online harassment, abuse and exploitation and exposure to extreme violence and sexual content that too often appears in algorithm-driven feeds.”
“The measures should prevent platforms from collecting sensitive data from children and should restrict the use of features like push notifications, autoplay, and infinite scroll, which prey on developing brains and contribute to excessive use,” Murthy wrote.
The surgeon general’s plea comes as various countries around the world are taking proactive steps to limit children’s use of social media and protect their private information. Last year, the European Union enacted the Digital Services Act, imposing new rules on tech giants to ensure user safety.
As previously reported by The Dallas Express, ByteDance, the parent company of TikTok, has filed a lawsuit in a U.S. appeals court to halt the enforcement of a new law mandating divestment of the app due to national security concerns and the company’s obligations under the Chinese government to share data with the Chinese Communist Party.
After Montana’s initial attempt to ban TikTok was blocked by a federal judge in November 2023, Texas and Florida subsequently passed broader laws targeting the app, per The Dallas Express.
As debates intensify over the regulation of social media, Murthy stands by his stance that more awareness and action are needed to warn about the negative impact of social media.
“We have the expertise, resources, and tools to make social media safe for our kids. Now is the time to summon the will to act. Our children’s well-being is at stake,” Murthy concluded.