U.S. Surgeon General Demands Warning Label On Social Media Apps

Surgeon General Vivek Murthy in an op-ed in the New York Times said the threat social media poses to children requires urgent action, and he demanded Congress to put a label on the apps as with cigarettes and alcohol, David Goldman reported for CNN.

“It is time to require a surgeon general’s warning label on social media platforms, stating that social media is associated with significant mental health harms for adolescents,” Murthy said. I Photo: Foundation for Social Connection

“The mental health crisis among young people is an emergency — and social media has emerged as an important contributor,” Murthy said in his op-ed.

He pointed to several studies, including a 2019 American Medical Association (AMA) study published in JAMA that showed teens who spend three hours a day on social media double their risk of depression. Teens spend nearly five hours a day on social media apps, according to a Gallup poll.

Murthy cannot act unilaterally to put a warning label on apps — that requirement would have to come from Congress, with whom Murthy pleaded to take urgent action.

“It is time to require a surgeon general’s warning label on social media platforms, stating that social media is associated with significant mental health harms for adolescents,” Murthy said.

“A surgeon general’s warning label, which requires congressional action, would regularly remind parents and adolescents that social media has not been proven safe.”