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Beginning next summer, Minnesotans scrolling social media sites will get a pop up warning.

Before they can proceed to photos, articles or posts, they’ll have to click through the warning, acknowledging the site could pose a hazard to their mental health.

State lawmakers and Gov. Tim Walz approved the law this year that makes it a future requirement that the sites provide the warning to users. While social media companies say they’ll seek changes or try to block enforcement, supporters say the pop ups could encourage people, especially kids, to think twice about how much time they spend on the sites. 

“I think the evidence is very clear that social media use is linked with depression, anxiety, loneliness, self harm, suicidal ideation, eating disorders, all sorts of terrible mental health conditions,” Rep. Zack Stephenson said. “So I believe you’ll see a message telling you that prolonged use of social media can lead to those outcomes.”

Stephenson, a Coon Rapids Democrat and the main sponsor of the law, said the labels will be like warnings for tobacco products or alcohol. The Minnesota Department of Health will write them, and site users will have to click to acknowledge the risks before moving forward to an app.

Former U.S. Surgeon General Vivek Murthy called for the 

 to be placed on the sites last year. He pointed to research indicating that prolonged social media use can lead to worse mental health outcomes, higher rates of eating disorders and body image issues among children and adolescents. Minnesota is the first state to pass legislation requiring them.

Stephenson said the warnings could prompt some to spend less time scrolling — or put the apps down all together.

“If you had expected big tobacco to make cigarettes less addictive in the ‘50s and ‘60s, you would have been sorely mistaken. They would never have done that. Addiction was their business model. And the same thing is true for big tech,” Stephenson said.

Failure to add the labels could be met with investigation and civil punishment. Social media platforms would also have to provide resources to address adverse mental health outcomes — like contacts for the Suicide and Crisis Hotline 988.

Erich Mische, CEO of Suicide Awareness Voices of Education, or SAVE, said that’s important.

“Warning labels at the end of the day are not the end all be all solution to protecting young people online, but warning labels serve as a really powerful tool for educating the public,  making them aware that the things that are taking place on social media pose a significant danger to the life safety of their children,” Mische said.

The bill faced some opposition from Republicans at the Capitol who said it could limit free speech. But others supported the proposal, saying the impacts of social media on young people require a tougher response.

NetChoice, a group that represents social media companies, said it will ask lawmakers to roll back the law over the next year. And if that fails, they could take the state to court.

“It does, I think, force the companies to essentially denigrate themselves in ways that they would otherwise choose not to,” said Paul Taske, co-director of the group’s litigation center. “We’ve had courts across the country say that you can’t compel private actors to act as the mouthpiece for the state to promulgate the state's preferred message.” 

NetChoice sued the state over a law that took effect earlier this month that requires social media companies to notify users about how their algorithms recommend content for them. Taske said rather than compelling the companies to post warning labels, the state should educate Minnesotans about potential issues for young people that choose to use the sites.

“The government has the ability to go and use its own voice, its own bully pulpit, its own pedestal to try and get its message across,” Taske said. “The problem here is that it’s trying to compel private companies to disseminate a message for it.”

Bridgette Norring is hoping the new law sticks. Norring’s son, Devin, died of a drug overdose in 2020 after taking a pill he thought was Percocet to treat tooth pain and severe migraines he was dealing with. He got the drug from another teen in his community selling on Snapchat.

“I think if Devin would have seen a warning or had something in place that said, ‘Hey, you know this is what you have to look forward to online, or you’ve been on too long.’ I think that would have prompted him to, you know, acknowledge that he’s been on there too long, and put the phone down and go find something different to do,” Norring said.

A provision that didn’t make it into the bill that became law would also have required the companies to provide periodic reminders to users of how long they’d spent on the sites.

Norring says she frequently speaks with young people to raise awareness about the dangers of fentanyl and potential adverse impacts of social media and frequently hears that the sites stir anxiety for young users.

“They’re not sleeping well, and they’re constantly on there, scrolling all hours of the day,” she said. “So a big piece of the social media warning label bill is providing resource information, you know, the National Suicide Hotline information. And I think that’s going to be a huge part of this as well, just providing resources to kids that need it.”

Barring a successful legal challenge, the warning labels will take effect July 1, 2026.

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Supporters say the pop-up messages could encourage Minnesotans, especially kids, to think twice about how much time they spend on sites. But social media companies argue that Minnesota’s law, the first in the nation to pass, is heavy handed.

Minnesota enacts first-in-nation law requiring mental health warnings on social media

A hand holds a smartphone that features social media apps like Tik Tok and Instagram.

Matt Cardy | Getty Images 2023

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Minnesota House of Representatives. Photo by Michele Jokinen

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Minnesota enacts first-in-nation law requiring mental health warnings on social media

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