The former general surgeon says that Congress has failed to protect the mental health of children
Former general surgeon Vivek Murthy accused the Congress of having failed “in his responsibility to protect our children” against the misdeeds of social media and called on legislators to “intensify and act now” in an interview on “Meet the Press” of NBC News which broadcast on Sunday.
Murthy, who was a general surgeon during Obama and Biden administrations, said that he would specifically like the Congress to adopt legislation that would oblige applications on social networks to include warning labels on their damage to children and allow greater transparency of social media companies so that researchers can study the effects of children more precisely.
The former general surgeon compared social media to cars, stressing the introduction of safety characteristics such as safety belts, inflatable cushions and collision tests decades ago.
“These have reduced the number of deaths,” Murthy told the moderator of “Meet The Press”, Kristen Welker. “We have to do the same for social media, because what we are doing now, Kristen is that we are essentially – is the equivalent of putting our children in cars without a seat belt, without inflatable bags, and having them drive on the roads without speed limits and without traffic lights. And it is simply morally unacceptable. ”
Congress has attempted in recent years to adopt legislation in order to better regulate social media platforms and their interactions with children, the Senate adopting the children's online security law (KOSA) and the Children's Privacy Act and adolescents (COPPA 2.0) last year with strong bipartisan support.
But the two bills were faced with opposite winds of civil liberties and social media societies. COPPA 2.0 was confronted with criticism from advertising companies when it sought to update a law of 1998 of the same name by increasing the age at which companies are authorized to collect information on children from 12 to 17 years old. It also included provisions that pay limits to the way third -party companies can advertise children under the age of 17.
Kosa, on the other hand, would create a “duty of diligence” for social media societies, which makes them legally responsible for feeding the content of children who could be harmful to their mental health. Groups of civil freedoms have warned that social media companies could compensate too much to reduce their legal responsibility, leading them to censor everything that could be deemed controversial.
None of the two bills received a voting on the soil of the House last year.
The head of the majority of the Senate, John Thune, Rs.d., and the chief of the minorities of the Senate Chuck Schumer, Dn.y., reintroduced Kosa to the Senate earlier this month.
Murthy, who is the author of the 2020 book “Together: Why Social Connection holds the key to better health, higher performance and greater happiness,” linked the rise of social media in children to the broader loneliness epidemic, warning that chronic solitude can be detrimental to people's health.
“It is then that it is starting to increase inflammation in our body, to increase our risk of heart disease and other conditions that end up shortening our lives,” said the former general surgeon.
The online connections, added Mildy, are not the same as the connection and sharing of friendships and relations with people in person.
“I am worried, for young people in particular, the impact that technology has about their social connection,” said the former general surgeon. “We tend to think:” Oh, children are on social networks. It's great because they are connected to each other. But no, we must recognize that there is a difference between the connections you have online and the connections you have in person. »»
Murphy warned that “more children are struggling with this intense online self-comparison culture, which is shredding their self-esteem”.
“Many of them try to be someone they are not online. And they actually have as many friendships in person as we all need.
Murthy also warned that children are likely to experience the negative effects of social media simply because their brain is not entirely developed.
“They are more sensitive to social comparison, social suggestion, their impulsive control is not as well developed. And this puts them more in danger of the negative effects of social media,” he said.
Former representative Patrick J. Kennedy, Dr.I., who is now a defender of mental health, also joined “Meet the Press”, in agreement with the assertion of Millthy that the government was not doing enough to help children on this front.
“Our country comes across its own responsibility as guards of the future of our children,” Kennedy told Welker.
A proposal he proposed was to create a “prevention fund”, highlighting the lack of preventive care for mental health diseases.
“If we are really serious to make a difference, we must simplify the system. We must change the reimbursement model. And, by the way, if we want good results, we must invest in A – what I call a prevention fund, '' said Kennedy.
“What I would like is that all payers, the state, the federal authorities, put dollars according to the actuarial impact of these diseases. … Why don't we put some of these dollars in a prevention fund where we can identify the most risky people and invest now?” He added.
