John Fetterman, who has struggled with depression, introduces ‘Stop the Scroll’ bill pushing for mental health warnings on social media

Sen. John Fetterman (D., Pa.) is working with a Republican senator from Alabama to push for a mental health warning label on social media platforms.

Fetterman and Sen. Katie Britt (R., Ala.) introduced the Stop the Scroll Act on Tuesday. The bill, if passed into law, would require the surgeon general to design a warning label system enforced by the Federal Trade Commission. The label would appear as a pop-up box warning users about the potential mental health risks of using social media and providing links to mental health resources every time a user opens a platform like Instagram, TikTok, Facebook, or X. Users would need to acknowledge the warning before continuing to the platform.

“Find anybody that is like ‘Hey, I just spent an hour on social media and I feel better about the world and about myself,’” Fetterman said in a Tuesday appearance with Britt on Fox News. “I’ve never met one, but if there is one, I’d like to meet them.”

In the interview on Fox host Bret Baier’s “Common Ground” segment, Fetterman and Britt described themselves as friends who bonded during their freshman orientation in the U.S. Senate — along with each other’s spouses, Gisele Fetterman and former New England Patriots player Wesley Britt.

Sen. Britt visited Fetterman when he was in Walter Reed National Military Medical Center for major depression last year following his near-fatal stroke and election win in 2022.

Fetterman said in the interview that he has witnessed the negative impact of social media both on himself and on his children. The two senators said they have bonded over their experiences as elected officials with children, which directly ties to their support for the bill. Fetterman has three children and Britt has two.

“If you have a person that’s spending hours and hours every day with one of your kids, you would want to know who that person is about,” Fetterman said.

U.S. Surgeon General Vivek Murthy would be expected to be on board with the bipartisan bill, seeing that he already proposed these labels himself. Pennsylvania Attorney General Michelle Henry, as well as more than 40 other attorneys general across the country, urged Congress to pass legislation of this sort earlier this month.

Murthy has warned of the negative impacts social media has on youth. He has said that 95% of young people ages 13 to 17 said they use social media, and more than a third said they’re on it “almost constantly.” He said young people who spend more than three hours a day on social media face double the risk of depression and anxiety symptoms, yet a 2021 survey found that adolescents spend an average of 3½ hours a day on social media.

In 2023, the surgeon general made a call for “urgent action” to better understand how social media affects young people and how to protect children from its adverse effects. He warned that children are exposed to violent and sexual content, bullying, and harassment on social media, and that social media is compromising their sleep and valuable in-person time with loved ones.

“We are in the middle of a national youth mental health crisis, and I am concerned that social media is an important driver of that crisis — one that we must urgently address,” he said.

Fetterman called his safety warning bill “common sense” and something a parent would want for their kid. He described what kids see on social media as what he used to read on the back of the bathroom stall — but it’s at their fingertips, and they’re on it for hours.

“It’s a conversation that we would be having as a parent, let alone as a senator, so I think it’s an entirely appropriate conversation that we should be having at a national level,” he added.

» READ MORE: John Fetterman was open about his depression. Now he wants to create a national mental health commission

Fetterman has been open about his personal struggle with depression, and said social media was an “accelerant” for it. He wants to create a federal commission focused on mental health and introduced a bill in May with Sen. Tina Smith (D., Minn.) to do so. The commission, if created, would provide policy recommendations to Congress and the president about improving access to and affordability of mental health care. Smith has also spoken publicly about her struggle with depression.

Fetterman also cosponsored a revised Kids Online Safety Act, which aims to improve privacy for minors, after LGBTQ protections were incorporated. Different versions of the bill passed the House and Senate, and it cannot move forward until they come to an agreement.

He also cosponsored the Eyes on the Board Act with Sen. Ted Cruz (R., Texas), a bill that would limit social media access in schools and has not progressed.

Fetterman and Britt both said they would welcome more bipartisan opportunities.

“I think some people think we must hate each other’s guts, you know, D.C., ‘Oh, you’re Republican, I’m Democrat or whatever,’” Fetterman said. “But it’s just not true, it couldn’t be further from the truth.”