Lawmakers Unveil Bipartisan Bill Requiring Social Media Mental Health

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The senators said they were following through on the surgeon general’s call to create a warning label for social media platforms.

Sens. John Fetterman (D-Pa.) and Katie Britt (R-Ala.) introduced a bill on Sept. 24 requiring social media platforms to carry mental health warning labels.

The Stop the Scroll Act is a bipartisan effort to ensure social media users, especially adolescents, are aware of the potential mental health risks posed by social media usage and are provided access to mental health resources, according to a statement from Britt’s office.

“Every child deserves the chance to live their own personal American Dream, but our nation’s youth mental health crisis is getting in the way for far too many,” Britt said in the statement. “With the Stop the Scroll Act, Senator Fetterman and I are following through on the Surgeon General’s call to create a warning label for social media platforms, but we’re going further by requiring the warning label to also point users to mental health resources.”

Under the proposed law, Surgeon General Vivek Murthy and the Federal Trade Commission would collaborate to develop and implement pop-up warnings for platforms that alert consumers to potential dangers, according to the statement. Users would need to dismiss the warnings with each login.

Murthy issued an advisory in May about how social media can negatively affect the mental health and overall well-being of children. The Department of Health and Human Services cited multiple studies on the effects of social media use on children in the 25-page advisory.

In June, Murthy proposed that labels similar to those on tobacco products and alcoholic beverages could increase awareness among social media users and their guardians. His appeal cited statistics, including those showing that adolescents who spend more than three hours a day on social media face double the risk of experiencing anxiety and depression.

“We are in the middle of a national youth mental health crisis, and I am concerned that social media is an important driver of that crisis—one that we must urgently address,” Murthy said in a statement earlier this year.

He also called for legislative action to prevent platforms from collecting sensitive data from children and to restrict features such as push notifications, autoplay, and infinite scroll, which contribute to excessive use.

The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) said on Sept. 19 that major video streaming platforms are engaging in mass data collection and surveillance, putting privacy at risk.

According to the FTC’s 129-page report, the platforms unlawfully gathered “troves of data” from users and non-users alike, including minors, without providing sufficient protection for their privacy.

Nine companies—Amazon, Facebook, YouTube, Twitter (now X), Snap, ByteDance (parent company of TikTok), Discord, Reddit, and WhatsApp—provided replies to orders made in December 2020, which formed the basis of the report.

Concerns about social media use caused the attorneys general of 42 states and U.S. territories to call on Congress to pass legislation on social media warnings in a letter earlier this month.

The Sept. 9 letter from the National Association of Attorneys General cited Murthy’s concerns, saying “this generational harm” requires immediate action.

“By mandating a surgeon general’s warning on algorithm-driven social media platforms, Congress can help abate this growing crisis and protect future generations of Americans,” they wrote.

The Epoch Times reached out to social media companies for comment but received no replies by publication time.