Lawmakers Across Multiple States Want Surgeon General-Style Warning Labels To Curb Social Media Use

Lawmakers in a number of states are making a push to add warning labels to social media, with critics calling the move the latest effort to create a so-called nanny state in America.California, New York, and Texas are leading the way in looking to combat excessive social media usage, with a particular focus on protecting children from potential harm to their mental health. The proposals, which vary among the states, would slap surgeon general-style warnings across users’ screens if they are logged onto sites like Facebook or TikTok for what is considered excessive periods of time.Critics have said the proposed pieces of legislation would go a step too far in regulating users’ online habits.“This matches the definition of ‘nanny state’ policymaking. It puts older, often luddite lawmakers in the position of deciding what’s best for your child,” the media director for the Consumer Choice Center, Stephen Kent, tells The New York Sun.“I don’t imagine these policies would be good for the family of a 13-year-old creative kid who gets genuine enjoyment and enrichment from making video content on social media,” Mr. Kent says.California’s Assembly Bill 56 would mandate that warning labels be displayed to users every time they access a particular platform, and then another warning would appear after three hours of continuous use. The second warning would take over the entire screen for 90 seconds, with another message popping up every hour thereafter, all with no way to opt out.“Warning label regimes have already swept California and led to TVs and couches having cancer warnings slapped on them, which consumers then become conditioned to ignore,” Mr. Kent says.If it passes, New York State’s Senate Bill S4505 would require warning labels on all platforms that use features like algorithmic feeds and autoplay content such as “like” counts and infinite scrolling.The state house in Texas has already passed a bill requiring social media companies to display warnings, but it is looking to bolster the law with a number of related bills that would ban minors from creating new accounts and add an age verification requirement.The measures come after a push from the previous administration’s surgeon general, Vivek Murthy, who in 2024 called for nationwide warnings to “increase awareness and change behavior.”“A surgeon general’s warning label, which requires congressional action, would regularly remind parents and adolescents that social media has not been proved safe,” he wrote in a New York Times opinion piece in June of last year. “Evidence from tobacco studies show that warning labels can increase awareness and change behavior.”A child and adolescent psychiatrist at Kaiser Permanente in Santa Clara, California, Lynette Hsu, said such warnings could be helpful in bringing attention to an issue about which many may not be aware.“In the last decade for sure, we’re seeing a rise in mental health concerns in young people,” she said to CBS News after Dr. Murthy made his initial call for labeling social media. “Our hope with warning labels is that they bring attention. Bringing attention to something gives us an opportunity to intervene.”Mr. Kent, however, says the measures being proposed make the user experience clunky and invasive and would likely force youth and adults alike to curtail their use of social media.“You’d probably see less social media use, which isn’t the same as convincing consumers that they should use social media less,” he says. “It’s highly coercive and very likely unconstitutional.”“If legislators wanted to warn their constituents about the downsides of excessive social media use, they have wide latitude to develop public school curricula and programs that help people develop more digital savvy and better habits,” Mr. Kent says.

Lawmakers Across Multiple States Want Surgeon General-Style Warning Labels To Curb Social Media Use

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