, Columnist
Social Media Isn’t Like Smoking. Warning Labels Won’t Work.
The tactics used for an earlier generation’s health crisis are a poor fit for the mobile phone age and a more nuanced problem.
US Surgeon General Vivek Murthy is well aware of the shortcomings of warning labels.
Photographer: Drew Angerer/Getty Images
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The US surgeon general’s call on Monday for social media services to carry health warning labels makes for a great headline, but it will do little to change harmful habits. More forceful action is needed.
Taking inspiration from the anti-smoking efforts that began in the 1960s, Dr. Vivek Murthy’s proposal, he wrote in the New York Times, would “regularly remind parents and adolescents that social media has not been proved safe.”