Read the following letter to the editor.

Read the following letter to the editor.

To the Editor:

    Defective airplanes, tobacco products, cars without seatbelts and social media posts: One of these things is not like the others.

    The surgeon general Dr. Vivek Murthy proposes applying warning labels to social media platforms as if they are surely dangerous, like cigarettes and airplanes whose doors fall off during a flight. But there’s another way social media is different: It’s a tool we use to express ourselves. As such, its use is protected by the First Amendment1 .

    This isn’t the first time the government has tried to regulate expression in the name of protecting kids. It tried to do so in the 1950s with comics, the 1980s with rock music and the 1990s with video games. We now look back on these efforts as misguided and unconstitutional.

Nico Perrino

Washington

The writer is the executive vice president of FIRE, the Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression.

(www.nytimes.com, 24.06.2024. Adapted.)

1First Amendment: an item in the American Constitution that guarantees the people freedom concerning religion and expression, among other rights.

It is the letter writer’s explicit position on protection protocols: