On Monday, U.S. Surgeon General Vivek Murthy said he wants Congress to allow for warning labels to be placed on social media sites advising of the negative effects the platforms could have on adolescents’ mental health.
The warning labels would be like ones on tobacco and alcohol products, warning that “social media has not been proven safe,” Murthy wrote in an op-ed for the New York Times. He said some research shows that teens spending more than three hours a day on social media have a higher risk of mental health problems.
But the efficacy of such a label — and whether it’d even be allowed — is up for debate, according to Northeastern University experts.
