California Bill Would Put Tobacco-Like Warnings on Social Media Apps

Updated 3:40 p.m. Monday

Taking a cue from tobacco regulation, California’s attorney general wants to force social media companies to slap warning labels on their apps that clearly state the risks posed to kids and teens.

The proposal follows the advice of the U.S. surgeon general, who called earlier this year for Congress to mandate warning labels on the federal level — a call that so far, lawmakers have not answered. Attorney General Rob Bonta and Orinda Assemblymember Rebecca Bauer-Kahan announced the new legislation at a Boys & Girls Club in San Francisco on Monday, alongside a family whose daughter died by suicide four months ago after becoming, as her mother Victoria Hinks said, obsessed with social media.

“She was hooked,” a tearful Hinks said of her 16-year-old, Alexandra. Hinks noted that she and her husband implemented all the advice of experts in terms of limiting Alexandra’s screen time, taking her phone away at night and using parental filters and controls.

“We tried to pull her out. We took her door off the hinges. We tried to take her phone away at night, but it was like taking a drug away from an addict,” she said. “We set up TikTok’s so-called parental controls to limit Alexandra to one hour per day. It meant nothing.”

Bonta said social media companies know their products are addictive and harmful but have refused to make changes.

The proposed California label would read: “The Surgeon General has advised that there are ample indicators that social media can have a profound risk of harm to the mental health and well-being of children and adolescents.”

Adolescents who spend more than three hours a day on social media are twice as likely to experience depression and anxiety, Bonta noted. He said if Congress won’t act, California should.

“Let’s be clear. This isn’t theoretical. It’s not a study about what might be. This is about real children and teenagers, real families, real impacts on real lives,” he said, noting that many apps have algorithms that “purposely prey on the psychological and developmental vulnerabilities of young people to keep them hooked.”

Assemblymember Bauer-Kahan stressed that the government had taken steps for decades to force private industry to make their products safer — such as mandating seatbelts in cars, recalling tainted foods and putting warning labels on tobacco products. A mother of teenagers, Bauer-Kahan said tech companies have a “powerful profit motive” to keep people online.

“Our children are aware of the harms, but they feel trapped,” she said. “They feel afraid of being isolated. And they just can’t stop. The companies know this. They know the damage they’re doing. We’ve heard it from the folks inside these companies who have testified on the issue.”

Jim Steyer, founder and CEO of Common Sense Media, which is sponsoring the legislation, called this a “tobacco moment for the country,” harkening back to the debates over warning labels and other regulations for cigarette makers who knew their products caused cancer but did not tell the public.

It’s not the first foray by California into regulating social media apps. In September, Gov. Gavin Newsom signed a bill aimed at forcing social media companies to change their algorithms to make them less addictive to teens and children. Bonta supported that law and has also brought several multi-state lawsuits against social media companies, including Meta and TikTok.

He said the warning label won’t be a panacea but is part of a multi-pronged effort to address a public health crisis.

A spokesperson for Meta declined to comment on the pending legislation. TikTok did not immediately respond to a request for comment.