With various regions considering new age limits on social media access, American regulators are also looking to take action, albeit in a less restrictive and enforceable form.
Today, a coalition of over 40 state attorneys general have called on Congress to implement safety labels on social media platforms, which would include warnings of their potential risks to children.
The initiative stems from a proposal put forward by U.S. Surgeon General Vivek H. Murthy, in which Murthy
As per Murthy:
“The mental health crisis among young people is an emergency, and social media has emerged as an important contributor. Adolescents who spend more than three hours a day on social media face double the risk of anxiety and depression symptoms, and the average daily use in this age group, as of the summer of 2023, was 4.8 hours. Additionally, nearly half of adolescents say social media makes them feel worse about their bodies.”
With this in mind, Murthy believes that social platforms should have clear warning tags, much like the labels added to cigarette packaging.
“Evidence from tobacco studies show that warning labels can increase awareness and change behavior. When asked if a warning from the surgeon general would prompt them to limit or monitor their children’s social media use, 76 percent of people in one recent survey of Latino parents said yes.”
How that would work, in practice, is another thing. Presumably, an official Surgeon General’s warning would need to be displayed on any download access points, as well as on the home page of the apps themselves.
Would that work in a social media context? I mean, we already know that no one bothers to read the usage agreements, so it seems like kids and parents may also just overlook these tags too.
In which case, is it worth pushing?
To be clear, Murthy has also proposed more expanded restrictions and processes to protect teen users, beyond just warning tags, including broader protections from harassment, abuse and exploitation, as well as limits on data gathering. So it’s not just these sternly worded panels that Murthy’s suggesting, though his recommendations don’t go as far as restricting social media usage among teens.
Several other regions have proposed exactly that, with Australia being the most recent government to float the concept of social media age limits. Several U.S. states have also explored this path, which makes this new proposal seem like a softened approach.
But still, 42 state attorneys general have endorsed the plan, and as Murthy notes, maybe, based on other examples, that could at the least prompt more users to consider such impacts before signing up.
The proposal will now go to Congress for further action.
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