---
title: Social Media Is the New Smoking. The Doctors Have Said It. Now What Do We Do?
description: UK doctors say social media is as dangerous as smoking for teenagers. The Academy of Medical Royal Colleges report, the US Surgeon General warning, and what ...
author: Dr Marina Nani (Editor-in-Chief)
date: 2026-05-10T22:00:00.000Z
updated: 2026-07-26T21:19:47.769Z
canonical: https://richhealthmagazine.com/article/social-media-is-the-new-smoking-the-doctors-have-said-it-now-what-do-we-do
image: https://cdn.nanimediahouse.com/vitaly-gariev-qmPZkwFj48s-unsplash.jpg
categories: Mental Health
content_type: Opinion
region: Global
publication: Rich Health Magazine
access: members
schema_type: Article
---

The Academy of Medical Royal Colleges, the body that represents every medical royal college and faculty in the United Kingdom, submitted a report to the government consultation that used language no one in British medicine has used before about a technology product.

Social media and smartphone use, the report said, 'ranks alongside smoking and wearing seatbelts in cars as a unifying force for the medical profession'.

That sentence deserves to be read twice. The most senior medical institution in the country is saying that the threat social media poses to children is comparable to the threat that prompted the single most successful public health intervention in modern history: the campaign against tobacco.

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