Casey Ross, Director, Social Media Strategy, FCB Health New York
What’s happening: The US Surgeon General, Dr. Vivek Murthy is recommending new warning labels on social media platforms to protect adolescents’ mental health.
Deep dive:
- The language Dr. Murthy wants to use: Social media is associated with significant mental health harms for adolescents.
- Comparison to tobacco products: Dr. Murthy believes that just like cigarette warning labels help inform users of health risks, similar labels on social media could alert parents and teens to potential mental health dangers.
- Call for legislative action: Congressional approval is needed to implement these warning labels. Without legislative backing, these measures can't be enforced, despite their recognized importance.
- Need for additional measures: Beyond warning labels, there’s agreement on the need for more comprehensive safety measures. This includes stricter regulations, increased transparency and accountability from social media companies and application stores (ie. Google Play/Apple’s App Store), as well as proactive steps by parents and educators to manage and limit kids' social media use, algorithm recommendations for minors, advertisers and enforcing strict age verification.
- Debate on effectiveness: Critics argue that warning labels aren’t effective because users have become desensitized, seeing them on many products like cigarettes, alcohol and food.
My thoughts:
- The US government has been trying to take action to protect teens on social media for a few years with little to no effect. The Surgeon General advocating for warning labels is a great move to keep the conversation going and continue to raise importance of the issue.
- Social media companies often claim they are taking proactive measures to protect teens, but time and again, their actions prove ineffective. I agree with the Surgeon General that 13 is too young to sign up for social media; 16 is more appropriate. In addition to social media companies, app stores (ie. Google Play/Apple’s App Store) should take on a more active role in the fight.
- Marketers can advocate for increased transparency and accountability from social media companies. This involves insisting on detailed reporting of the actions taken to safeguard adolescent users and ensuring that these platforms are held responsible if they do not implement the recommended safety measures. Marketers and advertisers have leverage on social media companies because they generate a large percentage of their revenue from advertising, and if the ad world demanded action, they could get the social media companies’ attention, just like in 2020 with the Facebook ad ban that forced Meta to address hate speech on their platform.
It will be interesting to see if Congress moves forward. As a marketer, I’ll be watching.
