\n<\/p>\n
What happens when a teenager signs up to TikTok? Within seconds, studies find, they are shown harmful content about issues from eating disorders to toxic subcultures, which keeps them scrolling and TikTok profiting from the ads.<\/p>\n
Neelam Tailor puts TikTok\u2019s algorithm to the test. Creating accounts for two fake children, a 14-year-old boy, Rami, and a 13-year-old girl, Angie, she explores the app\u2019s \u2018For You\u2019 page to see what the platform really serves young teens, replicating two studies published in 2022 and 2024.<\/p>\n
With insight from Dr Kaitlyn Regehr, of University College London, and Imran Ahmed, of the Center for Countering Digital Hate, this video reveals how TikTok profits by pushing vulnerable teenagers toward dangerous content, including self-harm, suicide and incel 2.0 culture<\/p>\n
In the US, call or text <\/em>Mental Health America<\/em> at 988 or chat 988lifeline.org. You can also reach Crisis Text Line by texting MHA to 741741. In the UK, the charity <\/em>Mind<\/em> is available on 0300 123 3393 and <\/em>Childline<\/em> on 0800 1111. In Australia, support is available at <\/em>Beyond Blue<\/em> on 1300 22 4636, <\/em>Lifeline<\/em> on 13 11 14, and at <\/em>MensLine<\/em> on 1300 789 978<\/em><\/p>\n In the US, help is available at <\/em>nationaleatingdisorders.org<\/em> or by calling <\/em>ANAD’s<\/em> eating disorders hotline at 800-375-7767. In the UK, <\/em>Beat<\/em> can be contacted on 0808-801-0677. In Australia, the <\/em>Butterfly Foundation<\/em> is at 1800 33 4673. Other international helplines can be found at <\/em>Eating Disorder Hope<\/em><\/p>\n Parents, don\u2019t panic \u2013 healthy screen time for children is possible, if you follow these few simple tips<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" What happens when a teenager signs up to TikTok? Within seconds, studies find, they are shown harmful content about issues from eating disorders to toxic subcultures, which keeps them scrolling and TikTok profiting from the ads. Neelam Tailor puts TikTok\u2019s algorithm to the test. Creating accounts for two fake children, a 14-year-old boy, Rami, and<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":19125,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[52],"tags":[9999,1161,1575,1954,544,94],"class_list":{"0":"post-19124","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-technology","8":"tag-boys","9":"tag-differently","10":"tag-girls","11":"tag-harms","12":"tag-tiktok","13":"tag-video"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19124","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=19124"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19124\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/19125"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=19124"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=19124"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=19124"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}