Social media's link to mental health: U.S. Surgeon General

U.S. Surgeon General Dr. Vivek Murthy joins Yahoo Finance Live to break down the connection between social media usage and younger users' mental health, as well as the need for policy oversight on social media companies.

Video Transcript

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- Well, there's no question social media plays a major role in many of our lives, and it certainly includes the lives of young people. But should that be the case? Today, US Surgeon General Dr. Vivek Murthy released a public advisory warning of the risks social media poses to our youth.

And Dr. Vivek Murthy joins us now more to discuss this along with our very own Anjalee Khemlani. Good to have you on today. You had an op-ed in the "Washington Post" today where you specifically said when you travel around the country, the number one question you get from parents is, is social media safe for my kids? How does the advisory and the guidelines presented today make these platforms safer?

VIVEK MURTHY: Well, this is absolutely the number one question I get. And it's from parents who are deeply concerned about the impact social media may be having on their kids, but who are also utterly overwhelmed with the fact that we have for almost two decades now placed the entire responsibility for managing a technology that's rapidly evolving and that's fundamentally changing how kids experience, friendships, and how they think about themselves-- we've placed this whole responsibility on the shoulders of parents. What our advisory does is it helps answer that question.

And it comes to two critical conclusions. One, that there is not, in fact enough evidence for us to say that social media is sufficiently safe for our kids. But number two, there's in fact, growing evidence that social media use is associated with harms to our kids.

This is really concerning to me because kids are not just smaller adults. Adolescents are at a critical phase of brain development where they are more sensitive to social pressure, social influence, and social cues. And all of those exist in overwhelming abundance on social media.

And lastly, consider this, kids who spend more than three hours on social media a day face double the risk of experiencing anxiety and depression symptoms. The average amount of time a teenager spends today on social media is 3 and 1/2 hours. So we have many kids who I worry are at risk. And that's why I'm issuing this advisory because we have to take action to protect our kids now.

ANJALEE KHEMLANI: Dr. Murthy, Anjalee, here. Good to see you again. Talk to me about why you stopped short of really calling this a full-on problem.

You seem to walk back even citing dozens of studies about the relationship between social media and their negative impacts, but then saying that there may be a problem with them there, it can have a profound risk. So it seems like you're sort of tiptoeing around, and then to your point, not having enough evidence just yet even though you cite so many. So, what are you waiting for really?

VIVEK MURTHY: Well., so Anjalee, as you know well, we have to go where the evidence leads us. And we would certainly like more data than we have. Part of the reason that independent researchers do not have more data is because they tell us they have not been able to get the full data from technology companies despite we're asking for it for years.

But the data we do have is enough in my mind for us to take action. And what we lay out is that while there are some benefits that some kids get from social media, there are also growing evidence of risk of harm. And we need more data to understand exactly the full extent of those harms, to understand which kids are most affected.

But what we really need to do now is put in place safety standards, the kind of standards we have for other products that kids use like medications or cars or car seats. And in these products, what we do is we establish standards that are set by independent experts and that are actually implemented and enforced so that parents don't have to go and investigate these products, do their own chemical analyzes, investigate the breaks of car systems on their own. In social media, we've got to do the same thing.

These products are extraordinarily complex. They're rapidly evolving. And it's just too much to ask parents to fully understand exactly what is going on in these platforms. That's why we're calling for action from policymakers as well as from technology companies in this advisory.

- Dr. Murthy, I would think a lot of these tech companies would push back just a little bit saying that they have taken into account some of the risks that are out there. They have put in place some uses in order to better control. They have the age limit, 13.

Many of these social media companies require you to be 13 years old in order to go on the platform. They have said that they do work to try to limit some of their exposure there. What more specifically would you like to see be done here from those tech companies?

VIVEK MURTHY: Well, a lot. It turns out that yes, they do have a limit of age 13 yet somehow 40% of kids ages 8 through 12 are on social media. Rules don't help if we're not enforcing them. Second though, these products have to be designed in ways that optimize and support the mental health and well-being of our kids.

And what matters is the evidence that they work. It doesn't matter how many steps and programs we have in place. What matters is the proof that they're actually helping. And when we look at the evidence that's publicly available, we do not see that evidence that they are, in fact, safe for our kids. So until that's demonstrated, then I'd say that we have clearly not done enough.

And finally, when it comes to transparency, you know, no parent, and I say this as a parent myself, no parent wants to feel like information is being hidden from them when it comes to the impact these platforms are having on their kids' mental health yet independent researchers keep telling us they cannot get full access to the data from technology companies to understand that full impact. In my mind, that's simply wrong. That shouldn't be the case. So we need greater transparency from these companies.

ANJALEE KHEMLANI: Dr. Murthy, I know that you've probably heard this clip before. But I want to play for you the Facebook whistleblower talking about-- Meta in particular knowing about the risks. Listen to what she had to say.

FRANCES HAUGEN: Many of Facebook's internal research reports indicate that Facebook has a serious negative harm on a nonsignificant-- a significant portion of teenagers and younger and children.

ANJALEE KHEMLANI: And I know that we also have heard the TikTok CEO talk about being willing to support more funding for NIH research in order to look at what you're talking about. But it seems like the problem solving for technology is more technology, whereas in other things that you've been able to regulate or warn about and the country in general take, for example, not just seatbelts and safety but also drinking limits and smoking limits and the like, so age limit. So it seems like there isn't really a set way to enforce all of this right now. Are there thoughts that you have on how we can all as a country get our arms around this?

VIVEK MURTHY: Well, sure, without a question, this is complex. These products have evolved over nearly two decades now. And so getting our arms around them isn't going to be simple. It won't happen overnight.

But we can use models from the past with past products. We can, for example, set the kind of safety standards that would minimize a child's risk of exposure to harmful content, risk of being harassed or bullied online particularly by strangers. Keep in mind, 6 in 10 adolescent girls say that they've been approached by strangers on social media in ways that make them feel uncomfortable.

We can also put standards in place that reduce the use of features that seek to manipulate children into spending more and more time on social media. And that kind of excessive use steals time away from sleep, which we know then has deleterious effects on the mental health of young people. So there's absolutely standards that we can put in place.

We actually have to enforce them as well. And both parts of this need to happen. Again, this is not new. We do this for other products. It may be different how we do it for technology, but we've got to recognize that it is urgent that we act here.

We are living in the middle of a youth mental health crisis in America that I have said is the defining public health challenge of our time. And the data is telling us more and more that social media may be an important contributor and driver of that youth mental health crisis. I believe it's our moral responsibility to address it with urgency.

Kids need it. Parents are asking for it. And as a society, this is what we've got to deliver.

- Dr. Vivek Murthy, we appreciate you taking the time today. Our thanks to Anjalee Khemlani as well.