IS SOCIAL MEDIA SAFE?

The U.S. Surgeon General is calling social media use an "urgent crisis" for kids' mental health

- ALICE PARK 

EVEN A VIRAL PANDEMIC was not enough to unseat what U.S. Surgeon General Dr. Vivek Murthy sees as "the defining public-health crisis of our time." That designation, he says, belongs to concerns about the mental health and well-being of Americans especially among young people.

On May 23, Murthy published an advisory warning that we don't know enough about how social media in particular is impacting children's emotional states, brain development, and social growth.

"I issued this advisory because this is an urgent crisis," Murthy tells TIME. After analyzing existing studies on social media's effects and consulting with experts, Murthy says there aren't enough data yet to determine whether social media use is safe for children and adolescents. But with 95% of teens ages 13 to 17, and 40% of children ages 8 to 12, saying that they use a social media platform like Instagram or TikTok, Murthy issued a call to action to better understand what social media is doing to the mental health of America's young people.

Murthy acknowledges that children gain some benefits from using social media. The platforms can make it easier to connect with others who share similar interests or experiences, which can help young people understand and process difficult events like loss and change. They can also expose them to new opportunities to learn about different places and ideas.