Youth · United States
U.S. Surgeon General calls for a warning label on social media platforms
Vivek Murthy framed adolescent mental health as the defining public health challenge of his tenure.
In a JAMA viewpoint and an accompanying New York Times op-ed, Surgeon General Vivek Murthy argued that the harms of social media to adolescent mental health are serious enough to warrant a Congress-authorized warning label, similar to those on cigarettes and alcohol.
The proposal is contested. Researchers including those Murthy's office cites disagree about whether the evidence of harm is causal or correlational. But the political ground has shifted — Australia, Florida, and others have moved on minimum-age laws, and several U.S. attorneys general have filed suits against major platforms.
Read JAMA's coverage for the full viewpoint and the academic debate around it.
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