6-18-2024 2:07am

AG Torrez Statement Regarding U.S. Surgeon General Calling for Social Media Warning Labels

Chris Edwards Editor

The U.S. surgeon general has called for social media platforms to include health warnings for younger users.

"One of the most important lessons I learned in medical school was that in an emergency, you don’t have the luxury to wait for perfect information. You assess the available facts, you use your best judgment, and you act quickly," Vivek H. Murthy wrote in an op-ed published in The New York Times "The mental health crisis among young people is an emergency -- and social media has emerged as an important contributor."

Surgeon General Murthy’s call to action harkens back to earlier public health campaigns that helped educate parents and policymakers about the dangers associated with smoking. It also sheds light on the urgent need for strengthening the regulatory framework for technology that has been linked to specific harms to children.

“There is no seatbelt for parents to click, no helmet to snap in place, no assurance that trusted experts have investigated and ensured that these platforms are safe for our kids. There are just parents and their children, trying to figure it out on their own, pitted against some of the best product engineers and most well-resourced companies in the world,” said Surgeon General Murthy.

Murthy’s recommendation for warning labels on social media applications highlights the same issues identified in the New Mexico Department of Justice’s lawsuit against Meta and Attorney General Torrez stands in strong support of this common sense approach to raising awareness about the dangers associated with adolescent use of social media platforms.

Statement: “People assume that social media apps that are freely available on mobile devices are safe to use but we know that they aren’t. Until these companies change the way they do business and place a premium on the safety of their users, parents should be given explicit warnings about the risk of child exploitation and the devastating impact that these products have on the mental health of children and adolescents,” said Attorney General Torrez.