New York has joined California and Minnesota in passing a law requiring warning labels on social media platforms deemed to have addictive features.
Platforms that offer feeds that the state considers addictive, and those with auto-play, or infinite scroll, will now be required to display a mental health warning when users open an app and at various points throughout the user’s experience.
Social media sites can’t obscure the label or bury it in their terms of service—if they do, they face a penalty of up to $5,000, according to the legislative text.
The law will apply to users in the state, though the target audience is children and youth, as concerns grow about their well-being online, according to the legislation.
While the measure was signed into law in late December, there is no specific date that the legislation will take effect. Before the enactment, the state’s attorney general would need to create rules on how the law will be enforced.
One important aspect of the New York law is that users will not be able to click through the warning that appears on their screens, said Holly Grosshans, a senior counsel for tech policy at Common Sense Media, a nonprofit that studies the effect of media and technology on children. “We think that it’s important to make these platforms and the potential harms these platforms [can cause] more transparent to users.”
Research has shown a connection between the amount of time students spend on social media and struggles with mental health. A 2019 study found that 12- to 15-year-olds who spent more than three hours daily on social media were twice as likely as their peers who spent less time to report having depression or anxiety.
Another report, published in 2025 by Common Sense Media and based on a survey of boys between the ages of 11 and 17, found that exposure to social media promoted specific views of masculinity and gender roles, and left boys feeling isolated, anxious, and with low self-esteem.
Some researchers question the effectiveness of labeling social media platforms, even if the restrictions are well-intentioned.
Putting “a warning label [on] social media might communicate solely that social media is dangerous—and that may scare folks or make them feel shame or guilt about their use,” said Chelsea Olson, a research scientist in the department of pediatrics at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. “The narratives can ignore the benefits,” she said. “We instead [should] give them the skills to use [social media] positively.”
Legal battles over whether laws restrict free speech
During Joe Biden’s presidency, then-U.S. Surgeon General Vivek Murthy called for a warning label on social media, comparing online platforms’ addictive nature to products like tobacco and alcohol. New York Gov. Kathy Hochul, a Democrat, made a similar analogy during a press conference this week.
“Parents and young people understand the real risk of [social media],” she said, adding: “It’s like on a cigarette package, those scary-looking warnings. [The social media warning label] says, ‘This is detrimental to your health.”
NetChoice, a trade association that represents tech giants like Meta and Google, filed a lawsuit to try to block the Colorado law, arguing that it amounts to an unlawful restriction on free speech. A judge in November temporarily paused the policy from taking effect.
One argument is that social media platforms are “co-constructed,” meaning that companies create a platform, and users interact with it in different ways—which in turn influences companies to change features on those products, said Olson. Because of those dynamics, use of the platforms could be legally considered a form of free expression, she said.
She believes the focus among policymakers should be encouraging digital literacy and digital citizenship that teach adolescents skills to use “social media in appropriate and healthy ways rather than focusing on shame or making them feel guilty about their use.”
States are moving to regulate several forms of technology
New York’s policy on social media comes amid a wave of broader concerns about the impact of devices on student learning and well-being.
At least 31 states and the District of Columbia require school districts to ban or restrict students’ use of cellphones in schools, according to an Education Week tracker. State officials in many instances have said that they hope to counteract social media use on campus and create a “distraction-free learning” environment.
New York and California have district-wide policies that restrict student cellphone use bell-to-bell. Minnesota has mandated a district-wide policy but hasn’t settled on a specific one yet.
Grosshans says social media warning labels could potentially increase support for the cellphone bans.
“Due to the transparency provided by the labels, [parents] will be more aware of the effect that the apps that their kids are accessing through their cellphones are having,” she said.
Many school districts also face pressure to develop standards for how students can use artificial intelligence in the classroom. Schools are beginning to roll out policies on AI that define appropriate and inappropriate use. Some of them are also attempting to teach students about the risks associated with the technology. Grosshans sees parallels in the types of regulations policymakers and school leaders are attempting to establish across different forms of technology.
“After 20 years of basically unregulated social media, we’ve unfortunately seen the harmful impacts,” said Grosshans.
“It is really important that we think about AI and these new tools that are coming out with that lens that we cannot wait another 20 years to place regulations on these products,” she said. “Products that [are] used by kids should be made safe for kids.”
2026-01-08 19:30:40
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