In the internet’s infancy, I was among The Atlanta Journal-Constitution reporters assigned to write a weekly column called “Netwatch” where we’d find and recommend newly emerging websites to readers. Looking back on the topics of those 1997 columns, it’s clear the expectation was that readers would turn to the internet for important content, not cat videos or porn. We expected people to treat the internet as a reference library.
What no one foresaw was the internet’s intrusion into childhood via social media. It has captivated them to the degree that much of children’s socializing now occurs in digital settings. And that fixation with online sites has not served children well, as evidenced in their worsening mental health.
Today, U.S. Surgeon General Dr. Vivek Murthy announced he wants a warning label on social media platforms advising parents that use of the platforms could endanger adolescents’ mental health.
The 2023 Common Sense report, “Constant Companion,” found students used their smartphones almost four and a half hours a day. That’s because social media platforms have devised strategies to entice and hook young users, including bombarding them with notification alerts. Common Sense found kids received a median of 237 notifications a day on their phones.
Writing in today’s New York Times, Murthy said:
It is time to request a surgeon general's warning label on social media platforms, stating that social media is associated with significant mental health harms for adolescents. A surgeon general's warning label, which requires congressional action, would regularly remind parents and adolescents that social media has not been proved safe. Evidence from tobacco studies show that warning labels can increase awareness and change behavior.
The mental health crisis among young people is an emergency — and social media has emerged as an important contributor. Adolescents who spend more than three hours a day on social media face double the risk of anxiety and depression symptoms, and the average daily use in this age group, as of the summer of 2023, was 4.8 hours. Additionally, nearly half of adolescents say social media makes them feel worse about their bodies.
Why is it that we have failed to respond to the harms of social media when they are no less urgent or widespread than those posed by unsafe cars, planes or food? These harms are not a failure of willpower and parenting; they are the consequence of unleashing powerful technology without adequate safety measures, transparency or accountability.
Murthy also wants schools to “ensure that classroom learning and social time are phone-free experiences.” The “phone-free classroom” movement is spreading as seen in the proposal by Marietta City Schools to collect smartphones every day from middle school students starting this fall and store them in pouches until dismissal. Midtown High School in Atlanta is piloting a similar program this fall.
Parents have been a barrier to no-phone policies in other districts because they feel phones in school make their children safer. A government classification of social media as a risk to children’s health with warnings similar to what parents now see on cigarettes and alcohol could lessen opposition to school efforts to limit phones in classrooms.
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