Surgeon General calls for social media warning labels [Video]

(FOX 9) – Research shows teenagers spend nearly five hours a day on social media, and it is taking a toll on their mental health.

“It makes your anxiety level go up. Why? Because it’s just more information you are getting cued into, and it keeps coming and coming. It’s more overload,” said 17-year-old Keenan Weis.

In an opinion piece in the New York Times, U.S. Surgeon General Vivek Murthy called on Congress to require warning labels on social media platforms, similar to those on packs of cigarettes, to remind parents and kids that social media has not been proven safe.

He cited several studies, including one that showed that teens who spend three hours a day on social media double their risk of depression and anxiety.

“I don’t think there’s any harm in putting a warning on social media. Whether it does any good, I don’t know,” said Connie Robertson, Clinics Director at …