The legislation, named the Stop the Scroll Act, looks to inform social media users of the risks of using social media and will provide them with mental health resources.

“Every child deserves the chance to live their own personal American Dream, but our nation’s youth mental health crisis is getting in the way for far too many,” Britt said in a press release. “With the Stop the Scroll Act, Senator Fetterman and I are following through on the Surgeon General’s call to create a warning label for social media platforms, but we’re going further by requiring the warning label to also point users to mental health resources.”

Britt cited a recent New York Times op-ed by Surgeon General Vivek Murthy in which he recommended a warning label for social media platforms.

The legislation would require the surgeon general “to develop and Federal Trade Commission (FTC) to implement a label that warns each user of potential mental health impacts of accessing a respective social media platform,” via a pop-up box when users open their social media apps. The users would have to acknowledge the pop-up before continuing.

“As a Senator, but more importantly, as a dad to three young kids, I feel a duty to address how dangerous unchecked social media can be for our mental health,” Fetterman said. “The evidence is right in front of us — addiction, anxiety, depression, and suicide are on the rise, and it’s directly tied to these platforms. Senator Britt and I are introducing the Stop the Scroll Act to make sure our laws catch up with the reality we are living in. This bill will help kids and parents alike take control of their social media use, not the other way around.”

Murthy noted that the warning label would not fix the hazards of social media on its own.

“To be clear, a warning label would not, on its own, make social media safe for young people,” he wrote in the op-ed. “The advisory I issued a year ago about social media and young people’s mental health included specific recommendations for policymakers, platforms and the public to make social media safer for kids. Such measures, which already have strong bipartisan support, remain the priority.”

State policymakers have also jumped on the social media advocacy train in recent months.

CLICK HERE TO READ MORE FROM THE WASHINGTON EXAMINER

Gov. Gavin Newsom (D-CA) signed a bill last week banning social media companies from tailoring their feeds to minors, instead saying the companies must push posts to them in chronological order.

Last week, Instagram launched “teen accounts,” which automatically transition accounts of those under 16 to ones with more supervisory access for parents. The function will curb excessive app use and give parents the ability to see whom their children are talking to and what posts their children see.