Bloomberg – The surgeon general, the top health authority in the United States, has called for social media to include a formal warning label, similar to the one put on cigarette packaging, warning parents that platforms such as TikTok, Instagram, Snap and others can harm the mental health of children and teens.
“A warning label from the surgeon general, requiring congressional action, would regularly remind parents and teens that social media has not been proven safe,” Vivek Murthy wrote in an editorial published Monday. new York Times,
The top US health authority, which issued a 19-page opinion on the matter last year, would still need Congress to approve any kind of measure.
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No legislation on labels has been introduced in Washington. But some lawmakers are pushing for more security controls on social media.
“These companies must be reined in, or the worst is yet to come,” Republican Senator Lindsey Graham said during a congressional hearing in January, calling for a failure to protect children from “sexual predators” and content that could harm their mental health.
In his opinion column on Monday, Murthy cited research that showed teens who spend more than three hours a day on social media double their risk of anxiety and depression symptoms. The average daily use in this age group is 4.8 hours.
He said evidence from tobacco studies shows that warning labels can help change this behaviour of indiscriminate use of the network by children and adolescents.
See more at Bloomberg.com
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