We can’t disagree with a state bill that would require social media companies to post warning labels on their websites for users who live in New York.

There has been more than enough study on the matter. Social media can be lousy for one’s mental health, and parents should do all they can to make sure children under the age of 18 are ready for the good and the bad that a life lived on social media can entail. It’s great to connect with friends or follow one’s interests via social media. But the pressure to keep up with the social media horde can feel crushing, and we know the toll cyberbullying can exact on teens’ mental health is immense.

In that sense we can understand why Assemblywoman Nily Rozic, D-Queens, and a majority of the state Assembly and Senate approved warning labels on social media sites. There will surely be a legal challenge to the bill by social media companies if Hochul signs Rozic’s bill. That lawsuit would join several lawsuits filed by social media companies challenging various governments’ attempts to regulate the industry, and it will be interesting to see how those lawsuits play out.

Whether this bill passes constitutional muster or not is somewhat immaterial, because we don’t think it will be terribly effective in accomplishing its goal of reducing social media use.

What do people do with pop-up ads? They get rid of them as quickly as possible so they can get to the content they want to see. We think the same thing will happen with warning labels on social media – they’ll be an annoyance to most and won’t be seen for more than the split second it takes users to find the “X: to make it disappear from their screen.

Social media isn’t good for people’s mental health – particularly teenagers. But it’s ultimately up to parents to teach their children about the possible harms of social media just as they do the harms of imbibing in alcohol, smoking or illegal drugs. Parents need to make sure they’re involved in how much time their child spends on social media, with whom they’re interacting and what they’re posting. Teens will hate it – but they’ve hated parental involvement in a lot of things over the years.

Most importantly, it’s up to social media users to know when to draw the line between behavior that is an enjoyable use of their spare time and the point where what is happening on social media is beginning to affect their life.

Supporters of Rozic’s bill point toward warning labels on cigarettes and alcohol bottles as reasons to warn people of the dangers of social media. We think they’re giving the warning label too much credit. In most cases, people stop smoking because of the ever-increasing cost to smoke cigarettes. But the state isn’t taxing social media use, so it can’t artificially drive up the cost of social media websites. In other cases people simply decide, after years of looking at the warning label and disregarding it, that smoking or drinking too much makes them feel lousy and they make the choice to stop using. We have a feeling the same thing will happen with social media. People will eventually figure out that social media is affecting their mental health and change. The labels don’t hurt anything, but they’re not a cure-all either.