Vivek Murthy, the former U.S. surgeon general under Joe Biden, has joined the San Francisco-based nonprofit Common Sense Media in a role that aims to vault him back into the limelight on one of his signature issues: youth online safety.
Murthy’s addition to Common Sense Media’s board of directors, first shared exclusively with POLITICO Pro’s California Decoded newsletter, underscores public health experts’ increasing concern about the potential harms that social media and artificial intelligence pose to kids’ mental health and well-being. Murthy has argued teen anxiety and depression diagnoses linked to social media use are exacerbating a youth “mental health crisis.”
He also advocated during his time as surgeon general for slapping tobacco-style health warning labels on social media — an idea that has started to gain momentum among both state and federal lawmakers.
Common Sense Media CEO Jim Steyer — brother of the billionaire, once presidential candidate Tom — told POLITICO that he envisions Murthy as the face of national and international tech safety campaigns, including to back pending legislation in California that would require age verification online and restrict AI chatbots’ interactions with kids.
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