By Tom Kertscher / Wisconsin Watch
Wisconsin Watch partners with Gigafact to produce fact briefs — bite-sized fact checks of trending claims. Read our methodology to learn how we check claims.
Yes.
Research has linked use of the video-sharing platform TikTok with anxiety, depression and suicide.
Bloomberg Businessweek found that TikTok’s algorithms push videos about suicide and anxiety to kids.
The Center for Countering Digital Hate created TikTok accounts that paused briefly on videos about body image and mental health and liked them; within 2.6 minutes, TikTok recommended suicide content.
Amnesty International found that children who show an interest in mental health are drawn into “rabbit holes of potentially harmful content, including videos that romanticize and encourage depressive thinking, self-harm and suicide.”
One university study analyzed 100 TikTok videos hashtagged #mentalhealth; almost half “reported or expressed symptoms of mental distress.” Another found a tendency to repeatedly expose users to content that could harm their mental health.
TikTok says it has more than 150 million U.S. users.
Two-thirds of U.S. teens use TikTok, according to a 2022 Pew Research Center survey.
This Fact Brief is responsive to conversations such as this one.
Sources
Bloomberg Businessweek: TikTok’s Algorithm Keeps Pushing Suicide to Vulnerable Kids
counterhate.com: Deadly By Design: TikTok pushes harmful content promoting eating disorders and self-harm into young users’ feeds
Amnesty International: Driven into Darkness
formative.jmir.org: Deconstructing TikTok Videos on Mental Health: Cross-sectional, Descriptive Content Analysis
twin-cities.umn.edu: How is TikTok affecting our mental health? It’s complicated, new U of M study shows
TikTok: Celebrating our thriving community of 150 million Americans
Pew Research: Teens, Social Media and Technology 2022
This article first appeared on Wisconsin Watch and is republished here under a Creative Commons license.
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This post was previously published on wisconsinwatch.org under a Creative Commons license.
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The post Is TikTok Associated with Anxiety, Depression and Suicide? appeared first on The Good Men Project.
