The U.S. surgeon general is pushing for warning labels for social media platforms.

What You Need To Know

  • The U.S. surgeon general is calling for social media warning labels

  • Dr. Vivek Murthy says youth are experiencing a mental health crisis

  • A Wake Forest woman agrees with the nation's top doctor after losing her son 4 years ago when he used Snapchat to obtain drugs

Dr. Vivek Murthy says social media is to blame for a youth mental health crisis.

A recent study from the surgeon general shows that up to 95% of youth ages 13 to 17 are on social media.

Camissa Kerr hasn't touched her son’s room since 2020.

“This is it. He was very clean," she said. “One of his friends, Morgan, they skateboarded a lot together." 

That skateboard, pictures, and a table he built during the COVID-19 pandemic are all still in William Kerr’s bedroom.

Kerr, then 19, lost his life in 2020 after taking a pill he got from someone selling drugs on Snapchat, his mother said.

"Two detectives showed up to our house and asked us if we knew where William was that night, and we told them we knew he spent it with a friend, and they said he didn't wake up that morning," Camissa Kerr said.

“We are in the middle of a youth mental health crisis which has become the defining public health challenge from our time," Murthy said.

Murthy says it's time to attack what he calls a public health risk on par with road fatalities or contaminated food.

He says warning labels are a start.

“We have a lot of experience using these from tobacco and alcohol, and what that experience has taught us, particularly from tobacco, is that warning labels are effective in both increasing awareness and driving behavior change," Murthy said.

Kerr agrees but she has one concern.

“Even as with it being on cigarette packages, it becomes so commonplace they're not even looked at," she said.

Still, she says there’s no harm in warning someone and possibly saving a life.

"There should be no controversy with having it put on there — it's not going to hurt and if it reaches one person that makes them consider this could be harmful, then it's going to be helpful," Kerr said.

The American Psychological Association advises parents to display healthy social media use their children can model.

The APA says problematic signs include experiencing strong cravings to check social media.