Surgeon General's Warning on the Harms of Screen Use - An Advisory and Toolkit on How to Protect Children and Adolescents

The U.S. Surgeon General’s definitive public-health guide to what screens are doing to children and what to do about it.

The U.S. Surgeon General’s Warning on the Harms of Screen Use examines the mounting evidence linking harmful screen use among children and adolescents to problems with mental and physical health, sleep, attention, learning, physical activity, relationships, and overall well-being. It defines the problem broadly, encompassing not only social media but smartphones, gaming, AI chatbots, online gambling, and other elements of an increasingly immersive digital environment.

This is not simply an alarm bell. The Advisory and companion Toolkit translate the research into concrete recommendations for parents, young people, schools, physicians, researchers, policymakers, and technology companies—from family media plans and device-free bedrooms to school phone restrictions, safer technology design, and replacing screen time with physical activity and face-to-face connection.