This June, US Surgeon General Vivek Murthy penned a strongly worded op-ed in the New York Times calling for . 鈥淚t is time to require a surgeon general鈥檚 warning label on social media platforms, stating that social media is associated with significant mental health harms for adolescents,鈥� he wrote. Such a warning, he said, 鈥渨ould regularly remind parents and adolescents that social media has not been proved safe.鈥�

A surgeon general鈥檚 warning label, which Murthy noted requires congressional action, could liken popular digital platforms鈥擨nstagram, TikTok, and Discord, for example鈥攖o tobacco and alcohol, for which there is substantial evidence of harm.