Leana Wen: Warning label for social media is crucial

It’s a good idea. Congress should heed Murthy’s call and enact legislation requiring the labeling. Such a move could pave the wave for additional needed reforms, including enforcing age minimums for social media use and banning smartphones in schools.

As Murthy wrote in an advisory last year, “there are ample indicators” showing social media’s harm to children and adolescents. Yet a recent Gallup poll found that teens spend nearly five hours every day on these apps.

Among young people with the highest social media use, 41 percent rated their overall mental health as poor or very poor, compared with 23 percent of those with the lowest use. In the high-use group, 10 percent expressed suicidal intent or self-harm in the last 12 months compared with 5 percent of the low use group. Other studies have linked frequent use to poor sleep, online harassment, low self-esteem and poor body image, with girls consistently reporting greater negative effects than boys.

Jean M. Twenge, a psychology professor and author of two books on social media and young people, explained to me that parents might not be aware of just how insidious and harmful social media can be.

“There is still a common attitude out there that, oh, this is just how kids communicate now,” she said. “Or it’s just videos, so it’s harmless.” Many parents don’t use these platforms themselves and aren’t aware of how addictive they can be. After all, companies design algorithms to keep kids using them for as long as possible.

A surgeon general warning can serve as a wake-up call for parents and caregivers. This is not dissimilar to warning labels on cigarettes and alcohol, which have been shown to increase health knowledge and reduce consumption. Indeed, the World Health Organization described health warnings on tobacco product packaging as “critical” to any effective tobacco control strategy.

There is another important reason for the warning label: It could catalyze overdue regulatory efforts to limit social media use among young people.

To begin, platforms should be verifying the ages of their users to make sure young kids aren’t accessing inappropriate content. Tech companies say they don’t allow children under 13 to use their platforms, but this is willfully ignoring reality. In a 2022 survey by the nonprofit consumer education group Common Sense Media, 38 percent of kids ages 8 to 12 reported using social media.

Already, bipartisan congressional efforts seek to enforce the minimum age and require parental consent for kids under 18. Twenge and other advocates want to go further and raise the age requirement to 16. The case for these changes is bolstered by the nation’s top doctor admonishing against social media use.

Murthy’s warning could also help efforts to ban smartphone use in schools. There is no good reason for kids to have their phones during school hours. But there are many compelling reasons for why they shouldn’t: The devices are distracting children in class; teachers are struggling to keep their attention; and surely it would be better for kids to interact with one another during lunch and recess rather than glued to their phones watching TikTok videos.

Lawmakers in Florida and Indiana have succeeded in banning phones during class time, and California’s governor recently announced he wants to follow suit. Other states should do the same, armed with the compelling argument that doing so will not only improve students’ learning but also their mental health.

Concerned parents don’t need to wait for legislative changes. As Twenge argues, the most important rule should be no phones in the bedroom overnight. Like smartphone usage in schools, there is no benefit to children accessing social media in the middle of the night. But there is real harm, including, at minimum, sleep disruption. Parents should use available parental controls to disable apps after a certain hour and, even better, physically remove phones before bedtime.

As expected, Murthy’s proposal has drawn pushback. Some have questioned the effectiveness of warning labels (despite evidence that they have worked in other contexts). Others have asked why regulators should be targeting social media, when there are other potentially negative influences on kids, including television. But Twenge’s research has shown that social media has the largest negative effect on teen mental health, surpassing that of other types of screen time by as much as 10 times.

Murthy is using the most powerful tool available to him to address this crisis. Everyone else — from legislators to parents — should, too.