The U.S. surgeon general’s office on Wednesday, May 20, released a newly published advisory warning that children and teens are spending more time on digital devices than sleeping or attending school. The bulletin, titled “Harms of Screen Use,” says excessive and compulsive screen use is linked to poor sleep, worse school performance, mental health problems and behavioral and social harms.
The report says the damage can run beyond grades and bedtime. It ties heavy use to anxiety, depression, substance abuse and developmental disruptions, and says poorer language, educational and health outcomes can follow early and frequent exposure to social media, phones, tablets, computers, games, apps and television. Robert F. Kennedy Jr. said social media is only one part of the problem, adding that new behavior patterns involving gaming, online gambling and other virtual interaction are emerging. He also said, “While screen use can have some benefits, the evidence of a range of risks to children’s overall mental and physical health is mounting.”
The advisory lands on a day when the office still did not have a confirmed surgeon general in place. The report was compiled by a series of Health and Human Services staffers during that vacancy, and it was released even as Trump’s current pick, Dr. Nicole Saphier, awaited a confirmation hearing. Saphier, a breast radiologist and contributor, would inherit a debate that has already moved through two other nominees. Trump previously selected Dr. Casey Means, who withdrew in April after a stalled confirmation fight over her lack of a current medical license and her vaccine views, and before that chose Dr. Janette Nesheiwat, whose nomination was pulled just days before her 2025 confirmation hearing.
The bulletin does not read like a warning from a blank page. It says young people and the adults around them should push back against excess screen use and replace it with real-life activities, and the toolkit released with the report gives schools, health care providers and policymakers concrete action items. Much of it tracks familiar American Academy of Pediatrics guidance, and the source material notes that some of the harms are already well established while others are still being studied. Even so, the timing gives the document extra weight: the government is still putting a surgeon general in place, but the case against endless screen time is already on the record.
What comes next is not a new diagnosis. It is whether schools, families and health systems act on the advice now that the federal government has put its name on it. Kennedy’s message was blunt: “Live real life.”
