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Hawaii AG supports warning label for social media

Hawaii’s attorney general is calling on congressional lawmakers to pass legislation requiring a U.S. Surgeon General warning on social media platforms.

Attorney General Anne Lopez, along with 41 other attorneys general, have signed a letter in support of the warning labels, according to a news release, saying young people are facing a mental health crisis fueled largely by social media.

Although various states have already taken action to hold platforms accountable, the attorneys general say federal action is necessary because “social media platforms have demonstrated an unwillingness to fix the problem on their own.”

They noted that a growing body of research links youth’s use of certain social media platforms to various, serious psychological harms, including depression, anxiety, and suicidal ideation.

Algorithm-driven social media also disrupts the sleep of adolescents through a constant stream of notifications and other engagements that lure them into “infinite scrolling.”

“As Surgeon General [Vivek] Murthy recognized, this generational harm demands immediate action,” they said in the letter. “By mandating a surgeon general’s warning on algorithm-driven social media platforms, Congress can help abate this growing crisis and protect future generations of Americans.”

In signing the letter, Lopez joins the attorneys general of Alabama, American Samoa, Arkansas, California, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, the District of Columbia, Florida, Georgia, Idaho, Illinois, Indiana, Kentucky, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, Mississippi, Nevada, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, North Carolina, North Dakota, Oklahoma, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, South Carolina, South Dakota, Tennessee, Utah, Vermont, the U.S. Virgin Islands, Virginia, Washington, Wisconsin, and Wyoming.

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