Social media warning labels come to Washington

An idea percolating all summer in the big national argument about social media—warning labels to help reduce the harms of online platforms to kids—has suddenly landed in Congress. Sens. Katie Britt (R-AL) and John Fetterman (D-PA) introduced a bill requiring platforms to add those labels. They envisioned a pop-up box appearing every time users log on to access the platform, asking them to acknowledge the potential mental health risks before they’re allowed to scroll, post or chat. The labels, which would be developed by the U.S. Surgeon General and Federal Trade Commission, would also link to mental health resources. Warning labels are an old idea from the physical world—think cigarette packs, electrical cables, and hard seltzers—that health advocates have been trying to revive for the virtual one. With no new national policies on the books to police children’s safety online, and even the existing state laws stuck in court, the simple, time-tested idea of a label is seeming more and more current. One important question that has taken a back seat in the debate is whether warning labels will actually… you know, work.  Would kids, or their parents, feel any differently about TikTok or Instagram if they had to click through a box that warned them it might hurt their mental health? Aileen Nielsen, a visiting professor at Harvard Law School who has researched warning labeling, criticized the Surgeon General's recommendation for lacking teeth. She compared it to cookie consent boxes and so-called state “zombie laws” that mandate the disclosure of synthetic digital content, but aren’t always widely enforced.