Former Surgeon General Jerome Adams said Sunday that social media platforms are “specifically designed to addict” adolescents and teenagers “similar to cigarettes” were marketed to young users by manufacturers earlier, and there needs to be regulation to reflect that.
“We know, based on Surgeon General [Vivek] Murthy’s report, that there is increasing and very valid evidence out there showing links between social media use, particularly at a younger age, and increasing anxiety, increasing depression, less sleep, which actually leads to mental health problems and also obesity,” Adams said on “Face the Nation with Margaret Brennan.”
Murthy, who served as surgeon general in the Biden administration, said in a 2023 report that technology companies and lawmakers should take “immediate action” by formulating policies to protect young people from “addictive apps and extreme and inappropriate content” on platforms such as Instagram, TikTok and Snapchat.
Adams, who served as surgeon general in President Trump’s first term, said that “similar to cigarettes,” the government needs to “point out the fact that these substances, meaning social media platforms, are incredibly addictive.”
“And we’re hearing again in these [social media addiction] lawsuits that they were specifically designed to addict children, again, the way cigarette manufacturers tried to addict children back in the day,” Adams added.
In a landmark decision on Wednesday, a jury in California found Meta, the parent company of Facebook and Instagram, and YouTube liable for creating platforms that knowingly caused mental health-related harm to young users and failed to disclose those dangers. The plaintiff, who went by the name Kaley G.M., was awarded $3 million in compensatory damages and $3 million in punitive damages.
A separate jury in New Mexico on Tuesday sided with state prosecutors, who had argued that Meta had violated the state’s consumer protection law over child exploitation claims. The violations, which according to the jurors reached thousands, resulted in a penalty of $375 million.
Meta and YouTube told CBS News in statements that they plan to appeal to the decisions.
“We work hard to keep people safe on our platforms and are clear about the challenges of identifying and removing bad actors or harmful content. We will continue to defend ourselves vigorously, and we remain confident in our record of protecting teens online,” Meta said.
Referencing Australia’s first-of-its-kind social media banwhich prohibits users under-16 to access social media platforms, Adams asserted that as court cases start to hold social media companies accountable for excessive screen time and addictive behavior in violation of local laws, more states in the U.S. should enact similar laws restricting social media and cell phone usage in classrooms.
“The policy is going to be hard, but Australia has already done it,” Adams said. “They banned social media for people under 16. You have 25 states, I believe, that are to the point where they’re discussing or have legislation keeping social media and phones out of schools. And we need to really understand the harm that’s occurring to our children because of this unfettered access to screen time and social media.”