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'An unfair fight': Surgeon general says parents need help with kids' social media use

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In 1964, Surgeon General Luther Terry issued an advisory that tobacco use 
is hazardous to your health. Terry's pronouncement led Congress to 
institute the warning labels that are on cigarette packages to this day. 
It also helped lead to a dramatic decrease in cigarette use, saving 
millions of lives.

In that same spirit, current Surgeon General Vivek Murthy issued an 
advisory last year about the effect that social media has on youth mental 
health. This week, he urged Congress to require that digital warnings be 
attached to social media platforms. 

I spoke with Dr. Murthy this week on Doctor Radio on SiriusXM about his 
efforts. He said his concerns resonate with his own experience and worries 
as a parent.

“My kids are of an age, 6 and 7, where they are not on social media yet, 
but when my daughter was in preschool she came home one day and asked my 
wife and me about posting a picture on social media," Murthy said. 
"Because her classmates had been talking about it. This is in preschool. 
So kids are getting exposed to this. We have 40% of kids ages 8 through 12 
who are on social media. So this is coming to our kids earlier and 
earlier."

Social media is designed to keep users on the site

The surgeon general also said he is concerned about the pressure that 
parents face in battling their children's exposure to social media.

“The entire burden of managing this has been placed on the shoulders of 
parents, and that is simply not fair," Murthy said. "And they are pitted 
against the best product engineers in the world who are using the most 
cutting-edge brain science to ultimately maximize the amount of time 
people are spending on these social media platforms. So that is the 
definition of an unfair fight.”

Parents need Kids Off Social Media Act:How a government ban would help

Murthy told me that his motivation to stand up against the growing risks 
of social media and its ties to America’s mental health crisis came from 
talking to parents and their kids across the country.

“They kept saying, is this safe for my kids to use?" he said. "And it was 
ultimately those conversations that made me say, you know what, we know 
that there’s growing evidence of an association between social media use 
and harm."

I asked the surgeon general what a digital warning label would look like. 
He said that different sizes and fonts and graphics will have to be tested 
to see what works best, but that “the message that a warning label should 
convey is that we now have evidence that shows us that social media use 
may be associated with mental health harm for adolescents."

Social media bullies and hateful trolls:A surgeon general's warning on 
social media might look like this – BEYOND HERE BE MONSTERS!

Status quo of social media isn't acceptable
When it comes to public safety, Murthy said that we can’t just accept the 
status quo, any more than we have with cigarettes, alcohol or car 
accidents.

Yet, it will be a prodigious fight against a powerful adversary.

“These platforms are highly sophisticated, they’ve been around and have 
evolved over a number of years now, but when what’s at stake is nothing 
less than the mental health and well-being of our kids, and we owe it to 
them as a society to do everything we can." Murthy said. "I think of what 
I would do as a parent if my child was in danger, and I would do what most 
parents would do, which is pull out every single stop to make sure that 
they were safe.

"Well, I’m telling you right now that millions of children in our country 
are experiencing this huge mental health crisis. Their well-being and in 
some cases their lives are in danger. Are we willing as a country to pull 
out the stops, to do everything we need to do, to protect them, to 
safeguard them?"

Dr. Marc Siegel is a professor of medicine and medical director of Doctor 
Radio at New York University's Langone Health. His latest book is "COVID: 
the Politics of Fear and the Power of Science." Follow him on Twitter: 
@DrMarcSiegel

https://www.usatoday.com/story/opinion/2024/06/21/surgeon-general-warning-
social-media-kids-mental-health/74139280007/

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'An unfair fight': Surgeon general says parents need help with kids' social media use "P. Coonan" <nospam@ix.netcom.com> - 2024-06-22 03:02 +0000
  Re: 'An unfair fight': Surgeon general says parents need help with kids' social media use Just Wondering <JW@jw.com> - 2024-06-22 10:30 -0600
    Re: 'An unfair fight': Surgeon general says parents need help with kids' social media use Governor Swill <governor.swill@gmail.com> - 2024-06-23 23:06 -0400

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