Noah Feldman, Columnist

Even If Social Media Is Hurting Kids, Regulating It Won’t Be Easy

The Constitution distinguishes between harmful speech and harmful products like cigarettes and alcohol.

May 28, 2023 at 12:00 PM UTC

Corrected

May 30, 2023 at 2:58 PM UTC

Noah Feldman is a Bloomberg Opinion columnist. A professor of law at Harvard University, he is author, most recently, of “To Be a Jew Today: A New Guide to God, Israel, and the Jewish People."

US Surgeon General Vivek Murthy
Photographer: Mandel Ngan/AFP/Getty Images

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Warning: The surgeon general has determined that social media is harmful to your mental health, at least if you’re a teen.

Ordinarily, a sentence like that, which isn’t an unfair summary of US Surgeon General Vivek Murthy’s recent report on social media and youth mental health, would strike terror in the heart of the industry targeted by the advisory. Society typically outlaws minors from using products deemed unhealthy, such as cigarettes and alcohol.