Katie Britt, U.S. Senators join forces to address youth mental health crisis with warnings on social media platforms

U.S. Senator Katie Britt recently joined CNN’s Jake Tapper to discuss the mental health crisis affecting Americans of all ages and backgrounds. Britt told Tapper that young people have been disproportionately affected by the hardship now being experienced by many across the country.

According to the Senator, between 2011 and 2019 the rate of depression among students in the country more than doubled.

“That perfectly coincides with the rise of social media. When we got the CDC reports last year, we saw that one in three high school young women actually considered suicide,” explained Britt. “And then 9% of our high school population 9% actually attempted death by suicide. The time for action is now.”

She spoke in detail about a new piece of bipartisan legislation she hopes will help address the issue made worse by social media. The Stop the Scroll Act, which would add a warning label to social media sites, was introduced by Britt and U.S. Sen. John Fetterman (D-PA) in September.

“What Fetterman and I have done is come together. Our Surgeon General came out in June of this year and said, social media needs warning labels. We fully agree.”

The mental health crisis is devastating American families. With rates of depression doubling among young people, I was proud to introduce my #StoptheScroll Act with @senfettermanpa to add a warning label to social media.

The time is now to support our next generation. pic.twitter.com/h2i9Q9atbU

— Senator Katie Boyd Britt (@SenKatieBritt) October 25, 2024

Britt said there should be a warning label on social media like there is on tobacco products.

“That’s exactly what we want in the social media space. So essentially, a warning label would pop up. It wouldn’t prevent anyone from using it. It would just make them aware of the mental health challenges that can occur by us. And as you click through to that, obviously that would be determined by the Surgeon General, what is said. But the one thing that Fetterman and I have said is we want to make sure that there is a link to help included on that warning.

“We envision that in being something like 988, telling people, if you are struggling, we want you to click here, we want you to call this number, we want you to text this number so that we can get you the help that you need.”

The warning would appear in a pop-up box format upon opening a social media platform. Each user would then need to acknowledge the potential mental health risks in order to proceed to use the platform. The warning label could not be hidden or obscured, and its exact language would adhere to requirements established by the Surgeon General.

Austen Shipley is a staff writer for Yellowhammer News. You can follow him on X @ShipleyAusten