U.S. Surgeon General Urges Congress to Issue Tobacco-Like Warning Labels for Social Media

The U.S. Surgeon General is urging Congress to issue a warning label, similar to those seen on cigarette packs, for social media platforms and their impacts on young people.

“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,” U.S. Surgeon General Vivek Hallegere Murthy wrote in an opinion piece for the New York Times.

“A surgeon general’s warning label, which requires congressional action, would regularly remind parents and adolescents that social media has not been proved safe,” Murthy added.

The surgeon general noted that while tacking a warning label onto social media platforms will not make them safe for young people, it would potentially change users’ behavior.

“Evidence from tobacco studies show that warning labels can increase awareness and change behavior,” Murthy said.

Notably, issuing a tobacco-like warning label on social media platforms means that Congress would have to action.

“The measures should prevent platforms from collecting sensitive data from children and should restrict the use of features like push notifications, autoplay and infinite scroll, which prey on developing brains and contribute to excessive use,” Murthy wrote.

The surgeon general also asked why society has failed to address the negative impacts social media has on young people.

“The moral test of any society is how well it protects its children,” Murthy asserted. “We have the expertise, resources and tools to make social media safe for our kids. Now is the time to summon the will to act. Our children’s well-being is at stake.”

Notably, the usage of social media is widespread among young people, with up to 95 percent those ages 13 to 17 saying they use a social media platform, and more than a third admitting that they use social media “almost constantly,” a 2022 Pew Research Center study found.

“Social media today is like tobacco decades ago, it’s a product whose business model depends on addicting kids,” Josh Golin, executive director at Fairplay, an organization that is dedicated to ending marketing to children, said, according to a report by Associated Press.

“And as with cigarettes, a surgeon general’s warning label is a critical step toward mitigating the threat to children,” Golin added.

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