U.S. Surgeon General calls for a warning label on social media sites, citing mental health harms


What you need to know

  • The U.S. Surgeon General Vivek Murthy published an op-ed in The New York Times this week, calling for a warning label on social media sites.
  • Murthy says the mental harms of social media sites warrant the label, which has been used in the past to highlight the dangers of substances like alcohol and tobacco. 
  • The U.S. Surgeon General cannot require the warning label by himself. That would require a bill passed by Congress. 

The debate of whether social media is linked to the declining mental health of adolescents has been raging on, and it reached new heights this week. It stated when Vivek Murthy, who is the U.S. Surgeon General, published an op-ed in The New York Times calling for a warning label to be placed on social media sites, like Instagram or TikTok. Warning labels like the one proposed for social media have been used for alcohol and cigarettes in the past.

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

Murthy cited the effectiveness of warning labels for tobacco products, as well as studies that referenced the harms associated with social media use. One study found that children and teens who spent more than three hours daily on social media are twice as likely to face anxiety. Murthy notes that the average social media use for adolescents as of Summer 2023 was well above this threshold, at 4.8 hours. 

(Image credit: Source: Daniel Bader / Android Central)

However, Murthy’s two statements — that “social media is associated with significant mental health harms for adolescents” and “social media has not been proved safe” — are two very different claims. It’s somewhat agreed upon that we don’t know the full effects of social media use at young ages, and we may not know the full effects for years or decades. The claim that social media has a direct association with mental health harms is more controversial.




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