Surgeon General Vivek Murthy is entirely right: Congress should require a warning label, similar to those on cigarettes, on social media platforms.
Ever more evidence shows that social-media use damages young people, in particular.
As Murthy warned in a New York Times column, “Adolescents who spend more than three hours a day on social media face double the risk of anxiety and depression symptoms,” yet “the average daily use in this age group, as of the summer of 2023, was 4.8 hours.”
Just like cigarettes (which have carried a Surgeon General’s Warning since the 1960s), social-media platforms are designed to be addictive: That’s what makes them so profitable.
At this point, teens who aren’t on them often find themselves cut off from their peers.
A 2023 Pew study showed that one-third of US teens are on social media “almost constantly.”
Meanwhile, the number of teens who say they “don’t enjoy life” has roughly doubled in just a decade.
Hence the growing drive to turn the tide.
Albany recently passed Gov. Hochul’s bill to limit apps’ ability to use addictive algorithms to serve content to anyone 18 or under, a huge step in freeing kids from the grip of TikTok, Instagram, etc.
As Murthy put it: “The mental health crisis among young people is an emergency — and social media has emerged as an important contributor.”
The warning wouldn’t infringe on free speech, but just acknowledge reality: Overuse of social media is harming America’s kids.
It’s time to take the evidence seriously.
Congress should take Murthy’s advice.
