The U.S. surgeon general's call for warning labels on social media about their services harming children's mental health puts him on one side of an issue that divides child psychologists.
While a number of studies have shown that excessive social media use harms children, some mental health professionals argue the evidence is inconclusive and that there's no proof warning labels work. In the view of his critics, Surgeon General Vivek Murthy is feeding into anti-social media hysteria. “There's really no good evidence to support the claims that the surgeon general is making,” says Chris Ferguson, a psychology professor at Florida’s Stetson University who studies the effects of technology on children.
