U.S. Surgeon General Vivek Murthy says the risks posed by social media to young people’s mental health are so severe that platforms should be required to carry warnings labels like those on alcohol and tobacco products.
“The mental health crisis among young people is an emergency—and social media has emerged as an important contributor,” Dr. Murthy wrote in a New York Times op-ed Monday, citing studies linking adolescent social media use with increased risk of mental health issues. “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,” he added.
Such labels will require congressional action and cannot be unilaterally imposed by the surgeon general. But Murthy pleaded with lawmakers to make them a reality in order to “regularly remind parents and adolescents that social media has not been proved safe.”
