In less than 3 minutes, teenagers as young as 13 years old can be recommended self-harm and suicide videos on TikTok, shows a new study.

⅔ of American teenagers use TikTok and the average viewer spends 80 minutes a day. The minimum age allowed on TikTok is 13 years old. The app offers users an endless personalized scroll page called “For You” showing videos based on their likes and time they spent watching content. There is no transparency however regarding the algorithm that creates such recommendations.

In their study, Deadly by Design, CCDH researchers created accounts for 13-year-old teenagers, some deemed “standard” and some “vulnerable”. “Vulnerable teen” accounts had usernames based on eating disorders as it has been shown that people suffering with eating disorders tend to use words related to these disorders in their usernames. Using these accounts they then paused on videos about mental health and body image and liked them.

It took as quickly as 2.6 minutes for suicide content to be recommended to a standard account and 8 minutes to be recommended eating disorder videos. Vulnerable accounts were shown 12 times more recommendations for self-harm and suicide videos than standard accounts and the content displayed was more extreme. For example, videos about methods of self-harm and teenagers discussing plans to commit suicide were shown.

TikTok hosts an eating disorder community that generates 13.2 billion views across hashtags that are designed to escape moderation and ban. Positive, informational content is mixed with harmful videos that display no warnings nor links to help or advice. Members in that community also encourage each other’s eating disorders.

We do not know exactly why TikTok’s algorithm shows vulnerable teenagers even more harmful content based on their username. Instead of maintaining them in their disorder and preventing progress, it should protect those already vulnerable people. The constant recommendation of harmful videos could also lead teenagers who initially displayed no disorder into developing greater interests in those topics by exposing them to unhealthy body image content and pressure.

Reference

Center for Countering Digital Hate (2022). Deadly by Design. https://counterhate.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/12/CCDH-Deadly-by-Design_120922.pdf

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