Social Media Can’t Ignore Kids’ Mental Health Issues Forever

Call me crazy, but a product that has to carry a health warning label seems like it might have a bit of a problem attracting customers. And yet that’s the situation social media platforms—such as Meta Platforms’ Instagram and Facebook, Snap’s Snapchat and TikTok— might be in if the surgeon general has his way. As he opined in this New York Times op-ed on Monday, labels need to state that “social media is associated with significant mental health harms for adolescents.” While TikTok has bigger problems—it might be banned in the U.S. before this warning label ever comes about—the idea isn’t good news for Meta or Snap. And yet both companies’ stocks rose on Monday.

In other words, investors don’t care. That’s probably a mistake. Yes, the danger social media poses to young people is a constant theme in the news media and in Washington. (Remember that Senate hearing from January, when Sen. Josh Hawley excoriated Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg over this issue? Under prompting from Hawley, Zuckerberg stood up and apologized to parents in the hearing room whose families had been affected by online abuse of some kind.) This issue crops up in the news so often—such as this exposé published by The Wall Street Journal over the weekend—that investors can be forgiven if they tune it out. But the surgeon general’s op-ed is the latest sign that something will eventually happen to force social media platforms to take action.