Other LanguagesBipartisan coalition of 42 AGs support U.S. Surgeon General recommendation
SEATTLE — Attorney General Bob Ferguson urged Congress today to take action on a U.S. Surgeon General recommendation to require warning labels on social media platforms.
Ferguson and a bipartisan group of 42 attorneys general sent a letter to congressional leaders. The attorneys general demand Congress help abate the nation’s youth mental health crisis by mandating a surgeon general’s warning label on algorithm-driven social media platforms, which include Instagram and Facebook.
Ferguson sued Meta, the parent company of those platforms, last year along with a bipartisan coalition of attorneys general. The federal lawsuit accuses Meta of intentionally putting profits before the well-being of millions of its most vulnerable users, targeting youth with harmful features designed to get them hooked for life all while publicly downplaying the risks.
Research shows that excessive social media use by children and adolescents correlates with increased poor mental health outcomes. That’s especially true for young girls.
On June 17, U.S. Surgeon General Dr. Vivek Murthy authored an opinion piece in The New York Times calling on Congress to require a surgeon general’s warning on social media platforms. Murthy argued that a warning label, which requires congressional action, would regularly remind parents and adolescents that social media is not safe.
Murthy wrote: “There is no seatbelt for parents to click, no helmet to snap in place, no assurance that trusted experts have investigated and ensured that these platforms are safe for our kids. There are just parents and their children, trying to figure it out on their own, pitted against some of the best product engineers and most well-resourced companies in the world.”
The letter from Ferguson and the bipartisan coalition of attorneys general reiterates many of the concerns highlighted in the multistate lawsuit: that social media has fueled the youth mental health crisis, social media companies are unwilling to fix the problem on their own, and “this generational harm demands immediate action.”
“As a parent of teenage twins, this is personal,” Ferguson said. “Social media is ubiquitous, but that does not mean it’s safe for kids. This is one step we can take to safeguard the well-being of Washington youth.”
The coalition of attorneys general that signed onto the letter to Congress include: California, Colorado, Kentucky, Mississippi, New Jersey, New York, Tennessee, Alabama, American Samoa, Arkansas, Connecticut, Delaware, District of Columbia, Florida, Georgia, Hawaii, Idaho, Illinois, Indiana, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, Nevada, New Hampshire, New Mexico, North Carolina, North Dakota, Oklahoma, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, South Carolina, South Dakota, Utah, Vermont, Virgin Islands, Virginia, Wisconsin and Wyoming.
Social media impacts on youth mental health
Experts, including the U.S. Surgeon General, agree that excessive social media use by children and adolescents correlates with physical and psychological harms such as higher rates of depression, anxiety and attention deficit disorders. It can also lead to eating disorders, suicidal thoughts and body dysmorphia.
Social media use can disrupt activities that are essential for health, like sleep and physical activity, depending on the amount of time children spend online.
According to the Surgeon General, recent research shows that adolescents who spend more than three hours per day on social media face double the risk of experiencing poor mental health outcomes, such as symptoms of depression and anxiety.
Social media may perpetuate body dissatisfaction, disordered eating behaviors, social comparison and low self-esteem, especially among adolescent girls. One-third or more of girls aged 11-15 say they feel “addicted” to certain social media platforms and over half of teenagers report that it would be hard to give up social media.
Ferguson launches youth mental health reporting system
In June, Ferguson launched a first-of-its-kind statewide reporting system exclusively focused on the safety and well-being of young people.
HearMeWA removes barriers to help young Washingtonians get the help they need to deal with their most pressing challenges: bullying, social pressures, suicidal thoughts, threats of violence, or anything that makes life hard. No problem is too small to report to HearMeWA, which was created with direct input from the young people it serves.
HearMeWA makes it easy to connect youth to a wide range of existing support services, by offering a direct line to a national crisis center 24 hours a day, 365 days a year. Reports can be made by phone, text, online or in the HearMeWA mobile apps available in the Apple or Google stores. Once a report is filed, highly trained crisis counselors triage them and connect the person with service providers who can help. Learn more at hearmewa.org.
Background on lawsuit against Meta
Ferguson and attorneys general nationwide filed the federal lawsuit against Meta in U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California in October 2023.
The lawsuit accuses Meta’s top leaders of knowingly targeting youth — calling them a “valuable, but untapped” market — with harmful features designed to get them hooked for life to maximize profits. Meta simultaneously and publicly downplayed the associated risks for those users, including disregarding its own research. These tactics contradicted the company’s public-facing claims that it puts user safety first.
In fact, Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg ignored internal documents on detailed consultation with “21 independent experts around the world” who found that filters with cosmetic surgery effects “can have severe impacts on both the individuals using the effects and those viewing the images.” Experts told Meta that children were particularly vulnerable as well as those with a history of eating disorders and mental illness. Instagram’s head of public policy wrote to Zuckerberg that outside experts were “nearly unanimous on the harm here.” Zuckerberg canceled a meeting to discuss these issues, then subsequently vetoed a proposal to ban the filters. He dismissed the concerns as “paternalistic.”
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