Surgeon general calls for social media warning labels amid teen mental health crisis (2024)

Amna Nawaz:

Surveys show the overwhelming majority of American teens use social media in some form, with roughly 90 percent on YouTube, over 60 percent on TikTok and Snapchat, and nearly 60 percent on Instagram.

Some studies now link more than three hours a day on social media to increased risk of teen anxiety and depression, leading the U.S. surgeon general in a new op-ed today to call for a warning label on social media platforms

And joining us now is the U.S. surgeon general, Dr. Vivek Murthy.

Dr. Murthy, welcome back to the "NewsHour." Thanks for joining us.

Dr. Vivek Murthy, U.S. Surgeon General:

Thanks so much, Amna, for having me.

Amna Nawaz:

So, I need to point out this would not happen without congressional action of some kind. But let's explore this idea that you have proposed here.

You're basically arguing that, like tobacco, that a warning label, coupled with research and also reporting on the harms that social media can cause, that it can make people make a different choice when it comes to social media.

So where have you seen that kind of self-policing work that leads you to believe a warning label would make a real difference for teens?

Dr. Vivek Murthy:

Well, thanks for asking, Amna.

And let me just step back and say that the reason I'm calling for this warning label is because I want kids and parents to know what we know in public health and science now, which is that social media use among adolescents is associated with mental health harms. Many people don't know that out there. And it's important that we share that.

In terms of why this could potentially be effective, the good news is, we have experience with warning labels from tobacco and alcohol. And in studying that experience, what we can see, particularly from tobacco labels, is that they are effective in increasing awareness and in changing behavior.

And so what we would do in the case of a label like this is, once Congress authorized such a label, that would then start off a phase, a scientific phase, of testing, different designs, different locations for the label, to ensure that it was maximally effective in increasing awareness.

And, to be clear, this is a digital warning that would appear when people use social media on a regular basis.

Amna Nawaz:

So there are some who say, look, saying that social media is the thing responsible for the teen mental health crisis that we know we're in is a lot like the folks used to say, well, rock music is responsible for bad teen behavior or video games are responsible for teen violence, the so-called moral panic argument.

What do you say to that?

Dr. Vivek Murthy:

Well, I can — again, I certainly understand that argument, but I think those are fundamentally different issues.

What we have not seen, whether it was in the case of rock music or television or radio or the telephone, was something that so wholly and completely pervaded the lives of our kids with an array of content that is just unparalleled. So many of our children are using social media nearly constantly.

And, in fact, if you look at the averages, Amna, you see that 4.8 hours per day is the average amount of social media use among adolescents. But we also see that what kids are being exposed to now is really quite disturbing, violent and sexual content. People are being harassed and bullied, often by strangers, online.

Six in 10 young girls are saying, young adolescent girls, are saying that they have been approached by strangers on social media in ways that made them feel uncomfortable. This is fundamentally different from the other factors that we have talked about.

And, most importantly, let's look at the data itself, which is telling us about this association between social media use and mental health harms. Nearly half of adolescents are saying themselves that using social media is making them feel worse about their body image.

So this is not an imagined problem. This is not a moral panic. This is a scientific concern that requires a public health solution. A warning label is part of that.

Amna Nawaz:

You also wrote about the benefits of social media a little bit last year. You talked about how LGBTQ youth, in particular, or other kids from marginalized communities can find community and connections and fight isolation online, that social media can do that. They can find mental health support in many ways too.

Are you now saying that the potential bad outweighs the potential good?

Dr. Vivek Murthy:

Well, in fact, what I was saying last year is that there is a mix of benefits and harms, but that, for many of our kids, the harms outweigh the benefits.

Just take LGBTQ youth, for example. While, yes, we have seen, thankfully, that many LGBTQ youth have been able to find a sense of community online in some cases that they may not have been able to find in person, we also know that they are much more likely to be harassed online on social media than straight kids.

And so we have got to take all of this into account. And, again, when you look at the population-wide data, you see that the harms are quite significant. When it comes to medications, for example, another example of a product where there's a mix of harms and benefits, we don't say that any benefit justifies extraordinary harms.

If there are — the harms outweigh the benefits, we pull the medicine from the market, we put restrictions on it in terms of who can use it, how it should be used.

Amna Nawaz:

You talk about this in your op-ed from the parents' perspective, in particular. You write — quote — "There's no seat belt for parents to click, no helmet to snap in place, no assurance that trusted experts have investigated and ensured that these are platforms safe for our kids."

You basically say, it's parents and kids against some of the best-equipped and best-resourced companies in the world. And I should point out, you are also a parent. Your children are on the younger end, but parents who are struggling with this will wonder, how are you handling this in your own home?

Dr. Vivek Murthy:

Look, this is a really hard time for parents across the country.

Many of us are trying to figure out how to manage these technologies that we didn't grow up with that are having profound impacts on the health and well-being of our kids. And right — until now, what really pains me is that the entire burden of managing this has been placed on the shoulders of parents and their kids. And that's simply not right.

What I'm planning to do with my children is to, number one, wait until at least after middle school to have them use social media. And then I will reevaluate when they're in high school, based on their maturity, the data about safety and whether or not there are safety standards in place.

For parents who are — whose kids are already on social media, what I recommend to them is to create tech-free zones in their children's life, to protect sleep, in-person interaction, and physical activity, which are vital for their development.

That could look like making sure that meal times, when you're all together, are tech-free experiences, or making sure that you take away devices an hour before bedtime, and then you give them back in the morning. So you protect the quality and quantity of sleep.

But regardless of all of these measures, Amna, what we have to do as parents is to have each other's back on this. We have got to work together, start talking more openly about this, so we don't feel the shame that so many parents feel at not being able to manage this on their own.

Amna Nawaz:

That's the U.S. surgeon general, Dr. Vivek Murthy, joining us tonight.

Dr. Murthy, always great to see you. Thank you.

Dr. Vivek Murthy:

Thanks so much, Amna. Good to be with you too.