US Surgeon General makes case for health warnings on social media apps

A senior US health official has called for cigarette-style health warning labels to be implemented on social media apps.

in an editorial new York TimesDr Vivek Murthy called for steps to be taken to remind users that online platforms are “associated with significant mental health harms for adolescents.”

The US Surgeon General believes that social media is a major reason for the “mental health crisis among people” and believes that the introduction of the label will regularly remind young people and parents that “social media has not been proven to be safe”.

Dr Murthy’s rationale for implementing warnings on social media is based on the example of cigarette packets, which have carried straightforward messages for decades. ‘Smoking causes blindness’ and ‘Cigarettes cause cancer’ are two examples of brief but stark warnings that are familiar to smokers on both sides of the Atlantic.

These labels were first introduced in the United States in 1966, after then-Surgeon General Leathers L. Terry published a report linking tobacco to lung cancer, and the UK followed suit in 1971.

In May 2023, I outlined recommendations to make social media safer for children. Yet parents and kids are still waiting for change. @anytime In this editorial, I re-call on legislators to take action, and call for social media to be labeled with the surgeon general’s warning. 1/2

— Dr. Vivek Murthy, US Surgeon General (@Surgeon_General) 17 June 2024

Social media “not inherently harmful”: Report

Murthy has linked the warning on cigarettes to awareness about the harm it causes and wants people to understand its importance on social media as well. LossHe believes this will also encourage parents to pay more attention to their children’s online activities and their health.

“Teenagers who spend more than three hours per day on social media have double the risk of anxiety and depressive symptoms,” Dr. Murthy said.

“By the summer of 2023, average daily use in this age group was 4.8 hours. Additionally, nearly half of teens say social media makes them feel bad about their bodies,” they added.

Even if the Surgeon General gains support for this initiative, it will likely face considerable resistance along the way.

any proposed law Passed by Congress In addition to fierce resistance from social media giants like Meta, TikTok and X, there is also likely to be a fierce political battle.

Those powerful companies will likely look to a last year study which found no evidence of a link between Facebook’s global spread and significant psychological harm, while the American Psychological Association stated that social media is not “inherently beneficial or harmful”, though it advised against harmful use and supported the removal of any content that promoted harm.

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