The number of teenagers on social media has sparked alarm among medical professionals, who point to a growing body of research about the harm such platforms can cause adolescents.
Murthy acknowledged the difficulties of keeping children off these platforms given their popularity, but suggested parents can find success by presenting a united front.
"If parents can band together and say you know, as a group, we're not going to allow our kids to use social media until 16 or 17 or 18 or whatever age they choose, that's a much more effective strategy in making sure your kids don't get exposed to harm early," he told CNN.
US Surgeon General Vivek Murthy says he believes 13 is too young for children to be on social media platforms, because although sites allow children of that age to join, kids are still "developing their identity."
Meta, Twitter, and a host of other social media giants currently allow 13-year-olds to join their platforms.
"I, personally, based on the data I've seen, believe that 13 is too early ... It's a time where it's really important for us to be thoughtful about what's going into how they think about their own self-worth and their relationships and the skewed and often distorted environment of social media often does a disservice to many of those children," Murthy said on "CNN Newsroom."
Murthy warned parents about the extreme harm of social media that make children more insecure and accessible to bullies.
The surgeon general told a tragic story about a 11-year-old girl who committed suicide after she was 'mercilessly' cyber bullied on several of her social media accounts.
New research suggests habitually checking social media can alter the brain chemistry of adolescents.
According to a study published this month in JAMA Pediatrics, students who checked social media more regularly displayed greater neural sensitivity in certain parts of their brains, making their brains more sensitive to social consequences over time.
Psychiatrists like Dr. Adriana Stacey have pointed to this phenomenon for years. Stacey, who works primarily with teenagers and college students, previously told CNN using social media releases a "dopamine dump" in the brain.
I recently had a mother who came to visit me in my office who told me a deeply tragic story about her daughter.
'Her daughter had started using social media, had seven accounts on three different platforms, was mercilessly bullied, unfortunately, by people on these platforms, struggled to get off of these but could not.
'She felt hooked onto them.'
Murthy further urged parents to join forces and ban their kids from using social media until they are older.
'If your child is the only one who's not using social media but everyone else in their school is, it's a tough position for your child to be in,' Murthy said.
'But if parents can ban together and say, as a group, we're not going to allow our kids to use social media until 16 or 17 or 18 or whatever the age is they choose, that's a much more effective strategy, making sure your kids don't get exposed to harm early.' study published in JAMA Pediatrics earlier this month argued social media is reprogramming children's brains and creating a generation of thin-skinned adults.
The researchers studied 178 12-year-olds from three public middle schools in North Carolina, US.
Each participant reported how often they checked popular social media platforms Facebook, Snapchat and Instagram.
They then took part in a Social Incentive Delay task where their brain responses were measured when they were anticipating receiving social rewards and avoiding social punishments.
Dr. Eva Telzer, assistant professor in developmental psychology at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and co-author of the study, said: 'Our findings suggest that checking behaviors on social media in early adolescence may tune the brain's sensitivity to potential social rewards and punishments.
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