US Surgeon General Vivek Murthy has demanded a health warning be placed on social media apps to protect children from a “mental health crisis.”
Writing in the New York TimesMurthy denounced social media as a “major contributor” to widespread social and psychological problems.
“Adolescents who spend more than three hours a day on social media are at double the risk of anxiety and depression symptoms, and average daily use in this age group was 4.8 hours as of summer 2023,” he said.
He calls for a warning label – similar to that on cigarettes – to be placed on apps, saying parents feel “helpless and alone when confronted with toxic content and hidden harm.”
The label would require congressional approval, but Murthy says the measure has bipartisan support.
US Surgeon General Vivek Murthy has demanded a health warning be placed on social media apps to protect children from a ‘mental health crisis’
A label alone wouldn’t “make social media safe for young people,” but it’s a good start, he said.
“When asked whether a warning from the surgeon general would prompt them to limit or monitor their children’s use of social media, 76 percent of people in a recent survey of Latino parents said yes.”
The surgeon general’s first warning was added in 1965, placing a label on cigarettes warning that they were linked to lung cancer and other health problems.
Since then, labels have been added to products that pose significant health risks to the public.
Murthy says social media now needs a similar warning.
“There is no seat belt for parents to buckle, no helmet to snap into place, no assurance that trusted experts have researched and ensured these platforms are safe for our children,” he said.
“It’s just parents and their kids trying to figure it out for themselves, going up against some of the best product engineers and most resourced companies in the world.”
A label alone wouldn’t “make social media safe for young people,” but it’s a good start, Murthy said
Murthy said parents have told him time and time again how concerned they are about the time their children spend online and the impact it is having on their health and mental well-being.
He said: ‘As a father of a six and seven year old who has already asked questions about social media, I worry about how my wife and I will know when to give them an account.
“How are we going to monitor their activities, given the increasingly sophisticated techniques to conceal them?”
Murthy said we need legislation from Congress to “protect young people from online harassment, abuse and exploitation and from exposure to extreme violence and sexual content that is all too common in algorithm-driven feeds.”
He added: ‘The measures should prevent platforms from collecting sensitive data from children and limit the use of features such as push notifications, autoplay and infinite scrolling, which affect brain development and contribute to overuse.’
In addition to the legislation, parents should band together to agree not to let their children use social media until they are 16 or 17, he said, making it easier because no child is “left out.”
Murthy said, “Parents should work with other families to establish shared rules so that parents don’t have to struggle alone or feel guilty when their teens say they are the only ones who have to tolerate boundaries.”