The United States surgeon general has called on Congress to require social media platforms to include warning labels about their effects on young people’s lives, similar to those now required on cigarette boxes.
In a Monday op-ed in The New York Times, Dr. Vivek Murthy said social media is a contributing factor to the mental health crisis among young people.
“It is time to demand a warning label from the surgeon general on social media platforms stating that social media is associated with significant harm to adolescent mental health. A warning label from the surgeon general, which requires congressional action, would regularly remind parents and teens that social media has not been proven safe,” Murthy said. “Evidence from tobacco studies shows that warning labels can raise awareness and change behaviors.”
Murthy, who serves as the government’s top public health spokesman and is known as the country’s doctor, said using just a warning label would not make social media safe for young people, but would be part of measures needed.
The use of social media is prevalent among young people, with up to 95 percent 13 to 17 year olds say they use a social media platform, and more than a third say they use social media “almost constantly,” according to 2022 data from the Pew Research Center.
“Social networks today are like tobacco decades ago: they are a product whose business model depends on addicted children. And, as with cigarettes, a warning label from the surgeon general is a critical step toward mitigating the threat to children,” said Josh Golin, executive director of Fairplay, an organization dedicated to ending marketing to children, in a communicated.
Placing the labels on social media platforms would require congressional action — and it’s unclear how quickly that could happen, even with apparent bipartisan unity around child safety online. Lawmakers have held several congressional hearings on child safety online and legislation is in the works. Still, the last federal law aimed at protecting children online was enacted in 1998, six years before Facebook was founded.
“I hope this will be combined with a lot of the other work that Congress has been trying to do to improve the security, design and privacy of social media products,” said Dr. Jenny Radesky, a developmental behavioral pediatrician at the University of Michigan and lead of the American Academy of Pediatrics. “These two things would have to go hand in hand, because there is a lot that Congress can do to follow in the footsteps of the United Kingdom and the European Union in passing laws that take into account what children need when interacting with digital products. .”
Industry resistance
Even with congressional approval, the warnings would likely be challenged in court by technology companies.
“Putting a warning label on online speech is not only scientifically incorrect, it is at odds with the constitutional right to free speech,” said Adam Kovacevich, CEO of the technology industry policy group Chamber of Progress. “It’s surprising to see the U.S. surgeon general attacking social media when teens themselves say it provides an important outlet for social connection.”
Last year, Murthy warned that there was not enough evidence to show that social media It is safe for children and teenagers. He said at the time that lawmakers needed to address the harms of social media in the same way they regulate things like car seats, baby formula, medicines and other products that children use.
To comply with federal regulations, social media companies already prohibit children under the age of 13 from signing up on their platforms, but children have been shown to easily circumvent prohibitions, both with and without parental consent.
Other measures that social platforms have taken to respond to concerns about children’s mental health can also be easily circumvented. For example, TikTok introduced a default time limit of 60 minutes for users under 18. But once the limit is reached, minors can simply enter a password to continue watching.
Murthy believes the impact of social media on young people should be a more pressing concern.
“Why can’t we respond to the harms of social media when they are no less urgent or widespread than those caused by unsafe cars, planes or food? These damages are not a failure of willpower and parenting; they are the consequence of launching powerful technology without adequate security measures, transparency or accountability,” he wrote.
In January, the CEOs of Meta, TikTok, X and other social media companies testified before the Senate Judiciary Committee as parents worried they were not doing enough to protect young people. Executives praised their platforms’ existing safety tools and the work they’ve done with nonprofits and law enforcement to protect minors.
Murthy said Monday that Congress needs to implement legislation that protects young people from online harassment, abuse and exploitation and from exposure to extreme violence and sexual content.
“Measures must prevent platforms from collecting sensitive data from children and must restrict the use of features such as push notifications, autoplay and infinite scrolling, which attack developing brains and contribute to excessive use,” Murthy wrote.
Senators Marsha Blackburn and Richard Blumenthal supported Murthy’s message on Monday.
“We are pleased that the Surgeon General – America’s top doctor – continues to draw attention to the harmful impact social media has on our children,” the senators said in a prepared statement.
This story originally appeared on Aljazeera.com read the full story
