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By Veronica Mackey
Legislation introduced last week by California Attorney General Rob Bonta and Assemblymember Rebecca Bauer-Kahan (D-Orinda), is calling on social media platforms to place warning labels online to better protect young users.
The bill, Assembly Bill 56, seeks to curtail the growing number of mental health issues faced by children and teens on social media. According to statistics, adolescents spend more than three hours per day online. This has resulted in increased cases of declining physical and mental health, including insomnia and symptoms of depression and anxiety.
“Social media companies have demonstrated an unwillingness to tackle the mental health crisis, instead digging in deeper into harnessing addictive features and harmful content for the sake of profits. It is our responsibility to make sure consumers have access to information that may affect their health, so they can make the best choices for themselves and their families,” Attorney Bonta said.
California is the first state to introduce the warning label legislature, originally introduced in Congress on September 24 by Senators Katie Britt (R-AL) and John Fetterman (D-PA). Britt and Fetterman’s “Stop the Scroll Act” proposes a pop-up box asking users to acknowledge potential risks to mental health.
On June 17. U.S. Surgeon General Dr. Vivek Murthy published a New York Times op-ed in favor of issuing warning labels. The article was met with applause from 43 attorneys general, who sent letters to House and Senate leadership in support of the proposal.
Under AB 56, social media platforms would be required to display the black box warning to users of all ages upon their first use and at least once weekly thereafter. The warning would be displayed continuously for a minimum of 90 seconds.
There is no doubt that social media influences millions of lives daily, from how people think to how much time and attention is consumed online—sometimes interfering with normal daily activities. The impact of social media on health habits (such as sleep and exercise), self-esteem and social discourse is far-reaching for users of all ages, but especially teens.
But, are warning labels enough to combat technology that keep users endlessly engaged with videos, receiving constant notifications of content curated to their specific interests? Will warning labels be effective enough to change online behavior if children are primarily the ones reading them?
According to Alex Ambrose, a policy analyst at Information Technology & Innovation Foundation, the proposal has serious flaws. In a piece on the ITIF website, titled “Congress Should Not Mandate Warning Labels for Social Media,” Ambrose said, “First, there is no established scientific consensus linking social media to harmful effects on mental health. Second, pop-up alerts on websites are largely ineffective, serving only to frustrate users without delivering meaningful behavior change.”
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Ambrose reasons that users often ignore pop-ups and cookie banners. They are more annoying and disruptive to the online experience than anything else. Additionally, research conducted by two communications professors, Jonathan Obar of York University in Toronto and Anne Oeldorf-Hirsch of the University of Connecticut, found that over 90 percent of Internet users don’t read the terms of service or privacy policies.
“Are policymakers expecting children to understand the seriousness of a warning label? A pop-up warning label is unlikely to be read, let alone influence public opinion—especially for children,” Ambrose said.
Second, there is not enough evidence that social media is causing mental health issues among youth. While social media certainly impacts mental health, it is nowhere near the harm imposed by cigarettes, alcohol or driving without seat belts.
Despite the Surgeon General’s recommendation for warning labels, his own advisory on children’s online safety in 2023 concluded there is a lack of evidence to determine whether social media harms children.
