TikTok has gained immense popularity in recent years, but its negative effects on young people in particular have long been a subject of debate. This week, attorneys general in 14 US states filed lawsuits against TikTok, accusing it of harming young people’s mental health. TikTok’s own internal investigations also support these claims, according to the lawsuits. According to NPR and Kentucky Public Radio, TikTok executives are aware of the potential harm the app poses to young people.
TikTok’s own research shows it’s negatively impacting young people’s mental health
The lawsuits state that TikTok has acknowledged a strong link between “compulsive use” and a range of negative effects on young people’s mental health. In particular, it emphasizes that such use negatively impacts abilities such as analytical thinking, memory formation, contextual thinking, empathy and depth of conversation. This undermines young people’s mental development and increases their anxiety levels.
The lawsuit filed by the state of Kentucky against TikTok in the US includes details of research conducted on the app’s effects on young people. The lawsuit also includes internal TikTok correspondence. These correspondence acknowledge the existence of a feature that allows parents to limit their children’s TikTok usage, but state that this feature only reduces usage time by 1.5 minutes per day. Interestingly, the success of this feature is determined to be increasing public trust in TikTok rather than reducing usage time.
TikTok’s positive image through media outlets could be interpreted as an attempt to cover up the negative impact it has on young people. However, TikTok denies these claims and maintains that the information published by NPR is misleading and that old documents were shared out of context.
A TikTok spokesperson said the quotes NPR released were misleading and misrepresented the app’s commitment to community safety. The spokesperson defended TikTok’s efforts to keep teens safe, claiming the documents were outdated and out of context. However, the documents in the lawsuit show that the platform is focused on improving its image rather than reducing the negative impact it has on teens.
Attorneys general across the US have argued that TikTok’s impact on young people’s mental health needs to be taken more seriously. The investigations that emerged during the lawsuit show that TikTok has ignored the social media platform’s impact on young people and focused more on public relations.
TikTok’s effects on young people are not limited to TikTok. Many social media platforms have been criticized for their addictive nature among young people. However, TikTok’s short-form videos and constantly refreshing content stream are considered to be more addictive, especially for young people. This makes it difficult for young people to limit their social media use in their daily lives and harms their mental health.
In conclusion, the negative effects of TikTok on young people are a fact that is acknowledged even in the platform’s own studies. However, the measures taken by the platform on how to reduce these effects seem ineffective and the main goal is to achieve public relations success. The cases show that this issue needs to be examined further and that social media platforms need to take their effects on young people more seriously.
