New York City designates social media as 'public health hazard,' 'environmental toxin'
The health advisory followed a similar warning on social media from the U.S. Surgeon General in May
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}During a State of the City address, New York City Mayor Eric Adams announced that his city will be the first to designate social media as a health hazard for young people.
"Today, Dr. Ashwin Vasan is issuing a Health Commissioner’s Advisory, officially designating social media as a public health hazard in New York City," Adams said.
"We are the first major American city to take this step and call out the danger of social media like this," he added. "Just as the surgeon general did with tobacco and guns, we are treating social media like other public health hazards and ensuring that tech companies take responsibility for their products."
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}Vasan, who works as the Commissioner of the New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene, also explained the background of his advisory, noting the significant decline of youth mental health.
Mayor Eric Adams boasted how New York City was the first U.S. city to publicly call out social media. (Jeff Bachner/New York Daily News/Tribune News Service via Getty Images)
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"[Y]outh mental health in NYC has been declining for over a decade. Rates of NYC high schoolers experiencing hopelessness increased by over 42% between 2011 and 2021, and rates of suicidal ideation increased by more than 34%. According to the most recent data in 2021, 38% of NYC high schoolers felt so sad or hopeless during the past year that they stopped engaging in their usual activities. Young people who identify as Black, Latino, female or LGBTQ+ bear disproportionately high rates of experiencing hopelessness," the advisory read.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}Vasan also included suggestions for parents such as "implementing tech-free times and places in relevant settings that encourage in-person connection," "discussing social media use in an open-minded way with children and youth and providing support when they identify concerns" and "modeling healthy social media use, including sharing use practices and how to be thoughtful with use."
He encouraged parents to hold off giving their children smartphones or similar devices until they are at least 14 years old.
Vasan made several suggestions about how parents can address social media with their kids. (iStock)
"Brains develop throughout childhood, and there is no safe age established yet for children to use smartphones and social media platforms," the advisory noted.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}The advisory recommended that both state and federal lawmakers take greater action to protect children.
"All New Yorkers should advocate to hold social media companies accountable and advance reform that protects youth from harmful and predatory practices," it concluded.
Vasan also quoted U.S. Surgeon General Dr. Vivek Murthy’s previous advisory from May, that warned "the current body of evidence indicates that while social media may have benefits for some children and adolescents, there are ample indicators that social media can also have a profound risk of harm to the mental health and well-being of children and adolescents. At this time, we do not yet have enough evidence to determine if social media is sufficiently safe for children and adolescents."
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U.S. Surgeon General Dr. Vivek Murthy previously warned that social media may not be safe for children. (iStock)
"We must acknowledge the growing body of research about potential harms, increase our collective understanding of the risks associated with social media use, and urgently take action to create safe and healthy digital environments that minimize harm and safeguard children’s and adolescents’ mental health and well-being during critical stages of development," Murthy wrote at the time.
In an email to Fox News Digital, a PR spokesperson from TikTok provided ways that the platform is protecting mental health.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}"Accounts aged 13-18 are automatically set to a 60-minute daily screen time limit. In addition, accounts aged 13-15 do not receive push notifications from 9 pm and accounts aged 16-17 have push notifications disabled starting at 10 pm. We also offer customized screen time limits for each day of the week and the ability for people to set a schedule to mute notifications," the email read.
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Fox News Digital also reached out to Facebook and YouTube for a comment.