The popular app TikTok is the latest front-runner in a decades-long social media craze. From MySpace to Snapchat, people are always looking for new ways to connect online. But is TikTok doing more harm than good? With over 150 million U.S. users getting their information from the site, it is essential to determine whether Tik Tok can be trusted with the security and health of our country.
In a trial on Mar. 23, a bipartisan panel of legislators carefully went through the ins and outs of TikTok’s connection to the Chinese government. There is mounting concern over the Chinese government’s influence over the app’s parent company ByteDance. The issue lies in a law created in China in 2017 that requires Chinese-owned companies to give the government any information relevant to national security. American government officials in all parties are concerned that in the face of the legislation, TikTok will not be able to protect American user data from Chinese retrieval. Propaganda is also a concern, particularly with young audiences. The committee suggested that ByteDance either sell the app to an American-owned company or face a possible ban in the U.S.
Discussion of whether the app is healthy for young users also took place within the panel. The average daily use of TikTok for users is a whopping 95 minutes a day, with 32.5% of users between the ages of 10 and 19. Although the company just announced a new feature limiting those under 18 to 60 minutes a day, TikTok CEO Shou Chew was unable to explain how many would heed that limit when asked at the hearing.
While the panel touched on many issues with TikTok–from security threats to high levels of screen time–they failed to thoroughly discuss the impact of Tik Tok on American youth mental health. However, this may be for good reason. National security sounds like a good reason to ban TikTok, but using declining mental health statistics as a reason comes off as an invasion of personal choice.
The effect of TikTok on mental health should not be taken lightly. The app is intentionally addictive, using a highly intelligent algorithm to keep young people hooked on the app for hours on end. It promotes high screen time because of its algorithm, which tends to lead people down dark paths to hold their attention. The Wall Street Journal conducted an experiment with TikTok using a fake account to understand how the algorithm would react to a person who was feeling depressed and interacting more with sad videos. The result was that after about 40 minutes of watching as a new user, their feed was 93% made up of videos about depression, sadness or mental health struggles, with the other 7% being mostly advertisements. The algorithm’s intelligence makes TikTok powerful and dangerous to young minds.
Another study by the Center for Countering Digital Hate found that it takes just five minutes on the app to see content related to suicide and eating disorders which can lead to more dangerous rabbit holes. They experimented further, setting up an account at the lowest user age, 13, and paused briefly on mental health and body image-related videos. They found that within a 30-minute period, they were being shown negative videos about body image and mental health about every 39 seconds from then on.
The ban itself has a strong argument for being implemented to defend national security given China’s poor record of respecting its citizen’s internet privacy. Just last year a ByteDance internal-audit team used TikTok data to try to track down journalists’ sources, showing they are not opposed to using TikTok as a method for governmental data collection. As long as the panel maintains that the reason for the ban is concerns for national security and the individual safety of citizens, the ban is warranted and should go through.
Regardless of the ultimate decision made by the panel, as young people, we should be very wary of our time spent on TikTok. It is not an app designed to make you feel good, it is designed to keep you hooked and take you down rabbit holes of content regardless of how detrimental it might be. While the government worries over security and screen time, the algorithm of the app is presenting a very real threat to the mental and physical health of young Americans. If a Tik Tok ban comes from concerns about China, the youth of America will be better for it.
