Warning labels to appear when using social media under new bill

You may soon be greeted by a pop-up warning you of the potential mental health risks associated with your favorite social media app if the new Stop the Scroll Act becomes law.

Senators John Fetterman and Katie Britt have introduced a bipartisan bill, the Stop the Scroll Act, aimed at reducing the potential mental health risks associated with social media use, especially among children and teens.

The legislation aims to implement mandatory warning labels on social media platforms, warning users of the potential mental health risks associated with their use.

The move comes amid increasing research into the influence of social media on the mental wellbeing of young people. The proposed legislation is a direct response to a call to action from Surgeon General Vivek H. Murthy, who urged Congress in June 2024 to mandate such warnings, comparing them to the warnings on tobacco products.

Murthy has repeatedly warned that excessive social media use among adolescents is linked to a higher risk of anxiety, depression and body image issues.

In an op-ed from June 17 in The New York Times Murthy said: “The youth mental health crisis is an emergency – and social media has proven to be a major contributor. Adolescents who spend more than three hours a day on social media are at double the risk of anxiety and depression symptoms, and the average daily use in this age group was 4.8 hours as of summer 2023.”

In an opinion piece for Newsweek On July 19, psychologist Navit Schechter spoke about the devastating impact of doomscrolling, describing how she “worked with many teenagers who fell into doomscrolling for hours after school as a reprieve – and a way to drown out the stress they were experiencing at school and the stress they experienced at school. negative, self-attacking thoughts they had about themselves as a result.”

The Stop the Scroll Act requires warning labels, designed by the Surgeon General and enforced by the Federal Trade Commission (FTC), to be prominently displayed whenever a user accesses a social media platform from a server in the United States.

The bill also requires these labels to provide links to mental health resources, including national suicide prevention and crisis hotlines.

What would it look like? Senators Fetterman and Britt explained in a statement that “the warning would appear in a pop-up box format when accessing a social media platform” and that “each user would then be required to recognize the potential mental health risks in order to use the platform to use. The warning label could not be hidden or obscured, and its exact language would meet the requirements established by the Surgeon General.

Because the Surgeon General will determine the final language, the exact wording of the warning labels is still unknown, but the law does require certain content. The labels should warn users about the “potential negative mental health consequences of accessing the social media platform.” This includes risks such as exposure to bullying, online harassment and abuse, discrimination and child sexual exploitation.

They should also connect users directly to resources that address these mental health impacts, including the website and phone number of a national suicide prevention hotline, such as the 988 Suicide and Crisis Lifeline.

It is known that it will contain these elements:

• Prominent display: The alerts should appear as a pop-up window every time a user visits the platform from a US server. This ensures that users cannot miss them.
• Instant Recognition: The pop-up cannot be ignored until the user takes action to acknowledge the potential harm. Only then can they proceed to the platform.
• Do not hide or obscure: The law specifically prohibits platforms from burying the warnings within long time frames, surrounding them with extraneous information to make them less noticeable, or allowing users to permanently disable the warning pop-up.

Both senators underlined the urgency to address this issue, describing it as a parental responsibility that transcends political divisions.

Senator Fetterman, who has spoken out about his own struggles with depression, emphasized the need to confront the potentially harmful effects of unchecked social media use. He has previously talked about how social media worsened his depression after his 2022 Senate victory and has advocated for online safety reforms.

“As a father of three young children, I feel an obligation to address how dangerous unchecked social media can be to our mental health. The evidence is right in front of us: addiction, anxiety, depression and suicide are on the rise, and it is directly linked to these platforms,” Fetterman said.

Senator Britt echoed these sentiments, characterizing the youth mental health crisis as an urgent national concern that demanded immediate action. “Equipped with the knowledge of the dangers and the tools to address them, this simple solution will help parents and children thrive,” Britt added.

Newsweek contacted Senators Fetterman and Britt for comment via contact forms on their official Senate websites.

However, Murthy himself has argued that warning labels alone are insufficient to address the multifaceted problem of social media’s impact on mental health. In his opinion piece he stated: “To be clear: a warning label would not in itself make social media safe for young people… The measures should prevent platforms from collecting sensitive data.”

Instagram has announced its own safety measures for adolescents using the social media platform. Teen Accounts makes all accounts for under 18s private by default and includes message restrictions, time usage reminders, and filters on content and offensive words designed to tackle bullying. It also added more parental controls and a ‘sleep mode’ that mutes all notifications between 10 p.m. and 7 a.m.

Newsweek reached out to Instagram, Snap and TikTok via email for comment on the Stop the Scroll act.