Pop-up health warnings highlighting the potential harms of social media, including mental health consequences, could encourage young people to reduce their social media use, according to a new Stanford Medicine study. An online experiment involving more than 1,000 teenagers and young adults also found that warning messages increased participants’ awareness of the potential risks associated with social media.
The research, published online Sept. 4 in JAMA Health Forum, was inspired by a 2024 call from then-U.S. Surgeon General Vivek Murthy, MD, to introduce health warning labels for social media, similar to warnings used for tobacco, alcohol and other potentially harmful products. Since then, California, Colorado, Minnesota and New York have passed legislation requiring social media warnings, with California’s law scheduled to take effect Jan. 1, 2027.
Lead author Anna Grummon, PhD, assistant professor of pediatrics at Stanford Medicine, said warning labels could be one of several strategies to encourage healthier social media habits. However, researchers have had limited evidence about what such warnings should say or whether different wording might influence their effectiveness. The study therefore examined which messages young people perceived as most likely to discourage social media use.
Researchers surveyed 1,012 participants, approximately half of whom were teenagers aged 13 to 17 and half young adults aged 18 to 29. They tested 14 social media warning messages and a control message unrelated to social media. The warnings addressed several potential health concerns, including addiction, negative body image, sleep disruption, depression, anxiety, overall mental health harms and the lack of evidence that social media is safe for young people.
Participants viewed the messages in random order, presented as though they were pop-ups on an Instagram page. They rated how much each message discouraged them from wanting to use social media and how much it increased their awareness of potential harms. Researchers also tested California’s legislated warning and a message encouraging users to take a screen-time break, similar to approaches already used by some social media platforms.
Overall, participants rated the health warnings as more effective than the control message. Most health-related warnings were also perceived as more effective than simply suggesting a screen-time break. Messages focusing on overall mental health harms, depression and anxiety received the strongest responses, suggesting that these topics may be particularly meaningful and relevant to young social media users.
The findings were also notably similar between teenagers and young adults. Senior author Thomas Robinson, MD, the Irving Schulman, MD, Professor in Child Health, said researchers had expected some differences because the digital environment changes rapidly and people only a few years apart may have different experiences with social media. Instead, both age groups consistently indicated that the warnings could discourage their social media use. California’s longer and more complex warning also performed relatively well compared with the other health warnings tested.
The researchers caution that the study measured participants’ perceptions and intentions rather than actual changes in social media use. The next step will be to determine whether well-designed warnings can produce meaningful behavioural changes in real-world settings. Although warning labels have been shown to influence behaviour with products such as tobacco and alcohol, social media presents different challenges because warnings would likely appear as recurring pop-up messages rather than permanent labels. Further research will be needed to determine how warnings should be worded, presented and timed to encourage healthier social media habits.
More information: Anna Grummon et al, Designing Social Media Health Warnings for Teenagers and Young Adults, JAMA Health Forum. DOI: 10.1001/jamahealthforum.2026.3014
Journal information: JAMA Health Forum Provided by Stanford Medicine