Why experts say we don’t need warning labels for social media platforms

Research is divided on whether social media helps or hurts teens’ mental health.

Warning labels are put onto products that can seriously harm our health, like alcohol and tobacco. But the U.S. surgeon general wants to have a warning label for social media. Dr. Vivek Murthy has said that the labels would be justified because of the supposed impact on teenage users’ mental health. He’s been clear about his desire for legislators to put into law rules that would require users to be warned about the potential impact being on platforms would have on them. “In an emergency, you don’t have the luxury to wait for perfect information,” he wrote in a New York Times op-ed this week.