You’re in the middle of a public health emergency involving a dangerously addictive substance — let’s say an epidemic of fentanyl or vaping among teens.
Issue a warning.
In the midst of a well-documented mental health crisis among children and teenagers, with social media use a clear contributing factor, the surgeon general, Dr. Vivek Murthy, recommends choice one.
As he wrote in a Times Opinion guest essay on Monday, “It is time to require a surgeon general’s warning label on social media platforms, stating that social media is associated with significant mental health harms for adolescents.”It’s an excellent first step, but it’s a mere Band-Aid on a suppurating wound.
We need to strongly regulate social media, as Europe has begun to do, and ban it for kids under 16.
Persons:
“, Vivek Murthy, ”, Murthy
Locations:
Europe