New York wants social media to carry tobacco-style health warnings

[Alfonso Maruccia]

Editor's take: New York is following other US states and Australia in taking the controversial step of restricting social media usage for younger audiences. However, a polite pop-up warning about potential mental health risks is unlikely to have much effect on teens and their doomscrolling habits.

New York Governor Kathy Hochul recently signed a state law aimed at imposing safety constraints on social media platforms. Known as legislation S4505/A5346, the law will require Meta and other major social media companies to display warning labels about potentially harmful features offered to users.

The Governor's office likens the new warning system to those already in use in other industries, such as tobacco, plastic packaging, high-sugar foods, alcohol, and even video games. These products can pose serious health risks, including cancer, birth defects (from alcohol), epilepsy, and more. Federal authorities have previously proposed tobacco-style warnings for social media.

Governor Hochul said that "keeping New Yorkers safe has been my top priority since taking office, and that includes protecting our kids from the potential harms of social media features that encourage excessive use. New Yorkers deserve transparency. With the amount of information that can be shared online, it is essential that we prioritize mental health and take the steps necessary to ensure that people are aware of any potential risks."

The law aims to address potential mental health risks associated with certain features offered by major social media platforms. These features are designed to prolong usage, keep younger users engaged, and expose them to potentially predatory behaviors or commercial offers.

While New York is not banning these features, the law requires platforms to display clear labels warning users about the risks. Local authorities can also bring legal actions against social media companies, seeking civil penalties of up to $5,000 per violation.

The Governor's office cited a recent study on social media and youth mental health, which found that teenagers spending more than three hours per day on social networks face twice the risk of anxiety and depression. The study also noted that roughly half of teens feel social media negatively affects their body image, and those who use social media the most report the lowest overall mental health scores.

Concerns about social media's impact on mental health are attracting increasing scrutiny from state, federal, and international authorities. Australia has outright banned social media use for younger teens, while US states including California and Minnesota have enacted more restrictive laws. Just a few weeks ago, New York also filed lawsuits against Meta, Google, and other major social platforms over exploitative tactics targeting young users.

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New York wants social media to carry tobacco-style health warnings

 

[mountains]

As a strong centrist, this is the kind of move that the political left does that gets nothing accomplished, distracts from the real issues, and strengthens the political right.

It weakens any real action for user privacy. Why don't you pass some laws that let social media continue, but they have to comply with strict user rights to data control?

Or find a way to reintroduce competition by ensuring that social media operates under open standards that prevent monopolization of networks and data. Allow multiple social media organizations to interact with each other.

Or find a way to limit how the need for "engagement" shoves ever increasingly extreme content in people's faces, further radicalizing both the left and the right?

Instead we get cookie popups and social media warnings.

 

[JMGuy]

As a strong centrist, this is the kind of move that the political left does that gets nothing accomplished, distracts from the real issues, and strengthens the political right.

It weakens any real action for user privacy. Why don't you pass some laws that let social media continue, but they have to comply with strict user rights to data control?

Or find a way to reintroduce competition by ensuring that social media operates under open standards that prevent monopolization of networks and data. Allow multiple social media organizations to interact with each other.

Or find a way to limit how the need for "engagement" shoves ever increasingly extreme content in people's faces, further radicalizing both the left and the right?

Instead we get cookie popups and social media warnings.

I strongly agree. This kind of performative politics has real consequences.

When the focus shifts to symbolic gestures instead of practical results, people lose trust and disengage. That dynamic played a real role in how the left lost ground to a deeply flawed alternative—not because voters were enthusiastic about him, but because they were tired of politics that felt more about signaling than governing.

It’s not just ineffective policy, it’s a credibility problem. If the left wants to win and govern well, it has to show it can deliver real outcomes, not just good intentions.

It’s especially irritating to watch this kind of moral signaling keep losing, not because the values are wrong, but because leaders seem more focused on feel-good-optics and righteousness-rhetoric than on doing the hard work of actually governing.

 

[NumberNine]

Social media is useless to me. I regularly communicate individually and directly with the people I'm close to in my personal life. Put the work in.

 

[JMGuy]

Social media is useless to me. I regularly communicate individually and directly with the people I'm close to in my personal life. Put the work in.

Agreed—same here. Unfortunately, we’re in a tiny minority and only losing ground. I could see how toxic Facebook was going to be back in 2006, for F-sake, and I told all my family and friends to dump it. Almost nobody listened.

The few who did ended up frustrated anyway, because they started getting socially left out. I have an email address and a cell phone—it’s not hard to reach out. But instead, people just post to their feeds and expect me to follow them.

Now I watch people I’m close to complain about the damage social media has done to society while continuing to use it, because it’s where everyone they know schedules things. It just kills me how willing the majority has been—and continues to be—to give in to this digital hellscape.

 

[toooooot]

If the left wants to win and govern well, it has to show it can deliver real outcomes, not just good intentions.

They should start with explaining why some of the craziest people including assassins coming after some of the most prominent people come from their midst. Must be those high morals they love to speak and teach others so much.

 

[JMGuy]

They should start with explaining why some of the craziest people including assassins coming after some of the most prominent people come from their midst. Must be those high morals they love to speak and teach others so much.

Extremism and unstable behavior aren’t owned by any one ideology.

 

[mountains]

Extremism and unstable behavior aren’t owned by any one ideology.

Dang, ain't that the truth. Both extremes have extremists. Both the left and the right. That is kinda the definition of extreme. Anyone that only sees "crazies from the other side" may want to re-evaluate where they get their "news".

It is time to take back the conversation from the left and the right. It is time to stop treating politics like sports, where loyalty to your team and winning are the only goals (that's what sports are for!). It is time to end the intentionally divisive identity politics.

We need to step back from the toxic anger and get back to fixing the real problems of this world.

 

[Win7user]

If, the powers that be really wanted to help our youth, or anyone for that matter against Social Media, they would BAN it all together! It's worthless, there is NO POSITIVE SIDE TO IT! It, promotes bad behavior, and bullying!

 

[DubiousFishHook]

My first telephone modem was a 28.8k, never used "social media" & probably never will.
They should do as in Australia where the carton cig boxes/packs are the color brown.