(Washington) The US Surgeon General called on Monday for social networks to display information on the risks faced by young people who spend their time there, like the mandatory prevention messages on cigarette packages.
“It is time” that authorities “require prevention messaging on social media platforms to warn of the significant dangers they pose to adolescent mental health,” wrote Dr. Vivek Murthy, principal health advisor to the American executive, in a column published by the New York Times.
These platforms are “an important factor” in the mental health crisis affecting young people, he insists.
PHOTO SUSAN WALSH, ASSOCIATED PRESS ARCHIVES
Vivek Murthy, principal health adviser to the US executive branch
Spending more than three hours a day on social networks doubles the risk of causing symptoms linked to depression and anxiety in adolescents, recalls Vivek Murthy. In the summer of 2023, writes this manager, young people spent around 5 hours a day on these applications.
He does not name them, but it is TikTok, Instagram (Meta) and other social networks or platforms of this type which are in the viewfinder.
The imposition of such messages must go through law, and therefore a political agreement in Congress, like the one that led to messages on cigarette packages in 1965.
“Research around tobacco consumption shows that these prevention messages promote awareness and change practices,” writes the chief medical officer.
Social networks can have “extremely harmful effects” on the mental health of children and adolescents, he had already warned in a report in May 2023.