US floats warnings for social media

Communications Minister Michelle Rowland says the government will consider tobacco-style warnings on social media platforms following a proposal in the US.

US Surgeon General Vivek H. Murthy wants warnings placed on social media. Picture: Getty Images.

Communications Minister Michelle Rowland says the government will consider tobacco-style warnings on social media platforms following a proposal in the US, as concerns mount over children’s online safety.

Ms Rowland said “every parent and caregiver was concerned” about youth social media usage as the “vectors for harm have never been more exemplified, have never been better understood, and continue to be better understood as each day goes by”.

US Surgeon General Vivek Murthy on Tuesday (AEST) recommended tobacco-style health warnings be placed on popular ­social media platforms such as TikTok and Instagram, amid mounting evidence of damage to users’ mental health, especially teenagers.

However, Ms Rowland questioned whether such a move was equally applicable in Australia, where social media platforms have been subject to tougher controls than in the US.

“Some of the comments the Surgeon General made were that these platforms are operating ‘under no rules’,” she said.

TikTok chief executive Zhou Zi Chew, left, and Meta chief executive Mark Zuckerberg. Picture: AFP

“We’re well placed in Australia; we do have a legislative framework, we also have a regulator in the eSafety Commissioner … We have always had this view the internet is not an ungoverned space.

“I think it also points (to the fact) smoking was once promoted as something that was healthy once upon a time. The challenges in retrofitting those harms is one that took decades, but it’s one that we are alive to as a government.”

Mr Murthy urged congress to pass legislation that would enable the Surgeon General, one of the nation’s top health officials, to warn social media users about the increasingly well-documented mental health costs of excessive social media use, declaring it an “emergency”.

“Adolescents who spend more than three hours a day on social media face double the risk of anxiety and depression symptoms,” he wrote in an opinion piece published in The New York Times.

“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 proposal follows calls in Australia by Peter Dutton for an outright ban on social media for children aged under 16, a suggestion Anthony Albanese is backing if appropriate legislation can be made “workable”.

“I want people to spend more time on the footy field or the netball court than they’re spending on their phones,” the Prime Minister said last week.

“And a ban, if it can be effective, is a good way to go.

“(Social media) is a scourge, it is negative, it is having a negative impact on young people’s mental health and on anxiety, and if you look at all of the figures then we have real issues to deal with.”

While a social media ban treads water in Australia, attention has turned to the US as an example of what may lie ahead.

In March, Florida governor Ron DeSantis, following similar moves in Arkansas, Ohio and Utah, signed a law making it illegal for children under 14 to be social media account holders, while 14 and 15 year olds can do so only with parental consent.