BOSTON – Massachuseetts Attorney General Andrea Joy Campbell joined 42 attorneys general from across the U.S. called on federal lawmakers to require algorithm-driven social media platforms to require a warning from the U.S. surgeon general.
The 42 participating AGs sent to Speaker of the House Mike Johnson, Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, and Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, on Sept. 9.
All six AGs from New England signed the letter.
In an opinion piece in the New York Times on June 17, Vice Admiral Vivek H. Murthy, the current U.S. Surgeon General, wrote that social media is an important contributor to the mental health crisis among young people. He also cited polling data from the Boston’s Children Digital Wellness Lab that showed nearly half of adolescents say social media makes them feel worse about their bodies.
He added, “It is time to require a surgeon general’s warning label on social media platforms, stating that social media is associated with significant mental health harms for adolescents.”
The letter by the 42 AGs says they are writing to support Murthy’s call for the warning.
Murthy also issued an advisory on May 23.
“The most common question parents ask me is, ‘is social media safe for my kids,” said Murthy in the advisory. “The answer is that we don’t have enough evidence to say it’s safe, and in fact, there is growing evidence that social media use is associated with harm to young people’s mental health.”
In October 2023, Campbell sued Meta, the parent company of Facebook, alleging they purposefully designed Instagram “to addict young users.” The lawsuit also alleges that Meta has repeatedly deceived the public “about the danger posed to young people through compulsive overuse.”
The AGs from California, Colorado, Kentucky, Mississippi, New Jersey, New York, and Tennessee are leading the effort. The other signatories are:
- Alabama
- American Samoa
- Arkansas
- Connecticut
- Delaware
- The 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
- The U.S. Virgin Islands
- Virginia
- Washington
- Wisconsin
- Wyoming
