“Social media today is like tobacco decades ago: It’s a product whose business model depends on addicting kids.'
FILE - The U.S. Surgeon General's Warning appears on a pack of Camel cigarettes purchased at a Chicago area news stand on Nov. 30, 2012. In a Monday, June 17, 2024, opinion piece for The New York Times, Dr. Vivek Murthy has called on Congress to require warning labels on social media platforms similar to those now mandatory on cigarette boxes.
“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. 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 said. “Evidence from tobacco studies show that warning labels can increase awareness and change behavior.
To comply with federal regulation, social media companies already ban kids under 13 from signing up for their platforms — but children have been shown to easily get around the bans, both with and without their parents’ consent. In January the CEOs of Meta, TikTok, X and other social media companies went before the Senate Judiciary Committee toas parents worry that they’re not doing enough to protect young people. The executives touted existing safety tools on their platforms and the work they’ve done with nonprofits and law enforcement to protect minors.
The surgeon general is also recommending that companies be required to share all their data on health effects with independent scientists and the public, which they currently don’t do, and allow independent safety audits.
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