Pulling the Curtain on TikTok

There are a lot of reasons to be un-thrilled with Tik Tok.

A few months ago I listened to a great podcast by psychologist and mom Tessa Stuckey called “What You Should Know About Kids on Tik Tok.” It’s an excellent summary: short, direct, descriptive. I recommend it! Her main points were

1. The number one contributing factor to teen anxiety, depression, suicidality is the need for immediate gratification… and Tik Tok is perhaps the biggest culprit for serving that up

2. Tik Tok really, really pushes and dumps the dopamine that contributes to screen addiction

3. It’s a great place for teenagers to gain attenion… and it’s a false attention

4. Parents can’t effectively oversee it. TikTok will keep showing them more and more stuff, according to what they already watch and like, and parents have no idea what that is

This last one is the focus of what I can only call a Must Read Article! by the Wall Street Journal this month called How TikTok Serves Up Sex and Drug Videos to Minors, by Rob Barry. People really, you must read this article.

I’m not an alarmist by nature and avoid doomsday commentary, but this was a whistle-blower article we all must read. And the images that pepper the text are as important (and frankly upsetting) as the text.

The bottom line of the article is:

Tik Tok is masterful at determining what interests a user has, and then serving up more of that interest… sometimes exclusively. So if a kid slows his scroll to watch a fellow teen do flirty, suggestive dance, then Tik Tok takes note and finds more videos like that. Then more and more. And they can (and do) become more and more suggestive, and sexy, and eventually explicit. And that’s eventually all TikTok will show that kid. It’s a rabbit-hole to a cesspool of vice. And addiction. It’s also worth noting that Tik Tok’s algorithms are the most powerful among social media sites, and they’re much better at this than the other platforms.

A few key lines from the article:

—Over the course of several months, The Wall Street Journal set up more than 100 TikTok accounts that browsed the app…, including 31 accounts registered as users between ages 13 and 15… Most were given interests (and) if a video matched the interest, then the account would dwell on that video; otherwise, the account would quickly move to the next video.

—A video investigation by the Journal found that TikTok only needs one important piece of information to figure out what a user wants: the amount of time you linger over a piece of content. Every second you hesitate or re-watch, the app tracks you. TikTok can learn your most hidden interests and emotions, and drive users of any age deep into rabbit holes of content—in which feeds are heavily dominated by videos about a specific topic or theme.

—TikTok showed the Journal’s teenage users more than 100 videos from accounts recommending paid pornography sites and sex shops. Thousands of others were from creators who labeled their content as for adults only.

—Still others encouraged eating disorders and glorified alcohol, including depictions of drinking and driving and of drinking games.

The Journal shared with TikTok a sample of 974 videos about drugs, pornography and other adult content that were served to the minor accounts—including hundreds shown to single accounts in quick succession.

—This can be especially problematic for young people, who may lack the capability to stop watching and don’t have supportive adults around them, said David Anderson, a clinical psychologist at The Child Mind Institute... He said those teens can experience a “perfect storm” in which social media normalizes and influences the way they view drugs or other topics.

—It has been hard to keep up with the app’s growth, the former executives said: TikTok now has about 100 million users in the U.S. consuming and producing videos, from about 25 million in 2019… Users upload tens of thousands of videos every minute. (So) moderators focus on the most popular content, leaving videos with lower view counts largely unreviewed, the former executives said.

Folks, this is not a drill.

Plenty of people use TikTok for harmless means; I’m not saying it’s all bad! I know it’s not. But given this information, if young people in your life are on TikTok, I urge you: get the heck involved! This is one for close parental oversight.

We do not want to lose an entire generation to the cesspool of the internet (and the world), and to addiction to the worst kind of vices.

Here’s to discerning minds, wise practices, healthy souls, and great parenting!

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