A coalition of over 40 state attorneys general urged Congress on Tuesday to place labels on social media platforms warning of their potential risks to children, rallying substantial bipartisan support behind a proposal championed by U.S. Surgeon General Vivek H. Murthy.
In a June op-ed, Murthy called on federal lawmakers to pass legislation authorizing the placement of tobacco-style surgeon general’s labels “stating that social media is associated with significant mental health harms for adolescents.” Murthy said the move would help tackle concerns that social media is fueling real-world harms among kids and teens.
Now 42 state attorneys general are endorsing the plan, writing in a letter to congressional leaders that it would mark “one consequential step toward mitigating the risk of harm to youth.”
“By mandating a surgeon general’s warning on algorithm-driven social media platforms, Congress can help abate this growing crisis and protect future generations of Americans,” wrote the group, co-led by attorneys general from New York, California, Colorado, Kentucky, Mississippi, New Jersey, Oregon and Tennessee and signed by nearly three dozen others.
In his op-ed in the New York Times, Murthy cited evidence that adolescents who spend substantial time on social media are at greater risk of facing anxiety and depression and that many teens say the sites have worsened their body images. Research studies finding direct causal links between children’s social media use and mental health harms remain sparse, and Murthy, lawmakers and academics have called for additional research into the matter.
Still, state and federal officials have increasingly spoken out against the dangers that social media platforms such as Instagram and TikTok can pose to children’s mental health, including by exposing them to bullying, harassment, illicit drugs and sexually abusive material.
Government leaders have also dialed up scrutiny of the ways digital platforms are designed to keep young users engaged through what some contend are addictive features.
At the federal level, the Senate in July overwhelmingly passed legislation that would force tech companies to take “reasonable” steps to prevent harms to children such as bullying, drug addiction and sexual exploitation, as well as expand existing protections for children’s online data.
At the state level, many of the same attorneys general last year filed a lawsuit accusing Meta of building addictive design features into its platforms, Instagram and Facebook, the result of a flurry of investigations into industry giants.
State legislators have separately passed a raft of bills to either limit children’s access to social media sites or to force companies to prevent or mitigate potential risks to younger users.
Those efforts face ongoing challenges from tech industry groups and free-speech advocates who argue they infringe on users’ constitutional rights. The groups and advocates also say government officials are acting too hastily to restrict social media use and disregarding its potential benefits for youth. Some of those groups have also spoken out against the warning label plan, calling it premature or unwarranted.
In their letter to Congress, the state attorneys general said a social media warning label “would not only highlight the inherent risks that social media platforms presently pose for young people, but also complement other efforts to spur attention, research, and investment into the oversight of social media platforms.”