If Americans need warning labels to keep themselves from drinking the clear liquid from a bottle labeled “bleach,” then an experiment in Darwinism might be in order. Instead, federal officials have become eager to slap on cautionary labels to products that are already obviously bad for us so they can parade themselves as heroes of public health in a performative display of nanny state engineering.
The surgeon general is out with an article in The New York Times this morning calling on lawmakers to require “warning labels” for social media platforms.
“A surgeon general’s warning label, which requires congressional action, would regularly remind parents and adolescents that social media has not been proved safe,” wrote Vivek Murthy. No kidding. Last year, the FBI warned of an estimated half a million child sex predators scrolling platforms online looking to connect with kids aged mostly 15 and younger. Murthy also explained in the NYT that “Adolescents who spend more than three hours a day on social media face double the risk of anxiety and depression symptoms, and the average daily use in this age group, as of the summer of 2023, was 4.8 hours.”
“Additionally, nearly half of adolescents say social media makes them feel worse about their bodies,” Murthy added.
The global prevalence of eating disorders has doubled over the past decade, and the increase has been driven in large part by social media serving up pro-anorexic content for teens within seconds of them being on popular apps such
