US Surgeon General calls for tobacco-style health warnings on social media platforms | ‘Social media is bad for your health’

From the article: The US Surgeon General wants social media to carry the same kind of health warning labels as cigarettes and alcohol. Dr. Vivek Murthy has called on Congress to apply labels to the sites and apps that alert users to the potential mental health harms they cause.

Murthy cited research in his [op-ed](https://www.nytimes.com/2024/06/17/opinion/social-media-health-warning.html) for the New York Times that shows social media has been a major contributor to the mental health crisis among young people.

One of the articles, a 2019 American Medical Association study published in JAMA, showed that teens who spend three hours a day on social media face double the risk of anxiety and depression symptoms. As of the summer of 2023, the average daily use in this age group was 4.8 hours.

It would be up to Congress to pass a bill that would put warning labels on social media platforms. Murthy says such a label would regularly remind parents and adolescents that social media has not been proved safe.

There have long been studies on the negative effects social media has on young users, from online harassment, increased exposure to problematic content, and the impact it can have on body image.