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It only takes ten minutes after creating an account on China’s TikTok app for the platform’s algorithm to begin pushing suicide videos to 13-year-old children.
The Chinese app’s recommendation algorithm is so advanced that within ten minutes, it will start pushing suicide videos if the young TikTok user suggests he is sexually frustrated, according to new research.
Many 13-year-old kids are "sexually frustrated." What kid wouldn't be given the obsession of public schools, entertainment, the White House, and now even some churches, in pushing transgenderism and the LGBTQ agenda?
Parents and grandparents: It cannot be overstated how important it is for you to be informed.
The company that owns TikTok is controlled by the Chinese Communist Party.
The Chinese Communist Party is trying to steal and kill our kids.
Be informed, not misled.
New research was published Tuesday by the corporate accountability group Ekō.
It's alarming.
In the introduction to the research results, the Ekō group said this:
Despite TikTok’s promises to crack down on this kind of content, it’s still easily discoverable by new users who want to seek it out. And TikTok’s recommendation algorithm is so advanced that it will begin pushing increasingly extreme content into the feed of new users after they’ve used the app for just 10 minutes, the new research states.
The researchers set up nine different new accounts on TikTok, which has replaced Instagram and Facebook as the de facto social media platform for teenagers in America, with 150 million active users. They stated their age as 13, the youngest age users can join the platform. Then they put up videos relating to various destructive subjects.
The researchers found that after viewing just 10 videos related to these topics, the “For You” pages of the new accounts were filled with similar, and often more extreme, content.
One test account shows an actor with a rifle in his mouth saying, “Shoot me. Shoot me in the (expletive) face,” alongside text that reads: “Get shot or see her with someone else?”
The video, which has now been removed, racked up over 440,000 likes, over 2.1 million views, 7,200 comments, and over 11,000 shares. The majority of commenters were supporting the suggested suicide, while other users shared commentary about their loneliness, many suggesting “they feel dead inside.” One commenter even suggested their own suicide in the next four hours.
Maen Hammad, co-author of the report, says, “Ten minutes and a few clicks on TikTok is all that is needed to fall into the rabbit hole of some of the darkest and most harmful content online. The algorithm forces you into a spiral of depression, hopelessness, and self-harm, and it’s terribly difficult to get out of that spiral once the algorithm thinks it knows what you want to see. And it’s extremely alarming to see how easy it is for children to fall into this spiral.”
The casualties
TikTok is known for pushing content harmful to children and young adults — which in some cases, even results in injury and death.
Earlier this month, the University of Massachusetts had to warn its students about a new drinking trend on TikTok, which has resulted in 28 ambulances being called to off-campus parties in the area. The trend involves students creating a “blackout rage gallon” of alcohol, flavoring, and other ingredients.
Ambulances being called to college parties over the “blackout rage gallon” trend is just the latest example of how TikTok, a platform owned by a hostile foreign country, is a danger to youths. The Chinese app is known for encouraging kids to participate in trends that are dangerous and life-threatening.
Earlier this year, a 12-year-old girl in Argentina died after participating in the deadly “choking challenge” first popularized on TikTok. The girl’s death was even filmed in a video call while her classmates watched as she attempted the deadly challenge.
Last summer, a 14-year-old and a 12-year-old in the UK died due to attempting the same TikTok challenge.
Another TikTok challenge in 2020 involved urging users to take large doses of the allergy medication Benadryl to induce hallucinations. The challenge resulted in reports of teens being rushed to the hospital, and in some cases, dying.
Two years ago, the Wall Street Journal began warning parents about TikTok:
Teenage girls across the globe have been showing up at doctors’ offices with tics—physical jerking movements and verbal outbursts—since the start of the pandemic.
Movement-disorder doctors were stumped at first. Girls with tics are rare, and these teens had an unusually high number of them, which had developed suddenly. After months of studying the patients and consulting with one another, experts at top pediatric hospitals in the U.S., Canada, Australia, and the U.K. discovered that most of the girls had something in common: TikTok.
There are plenty of tic-like behaviors to witness on TikTok. When doctors in the U.K. began studying the phenomenon in January, videos containing the hashtag #tourettes had about 1.25 billion views, according to their report—a number that has since grown to 4.8 billion.
The solution.
The WSJ article is long but helpful from a secular point of view. I think it is worth the read if your child is suffering from tics or even other related symptoms from TikTok.
I personally believe parents should be very aware of what their kids are logged into in all matters regarding the internet. Particularly TikTok.
The spiritual solution is found in the Bible. It's preemptive.
Deuteronomy6:5-9:
And thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thine heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy might.
And these words, which I command thee this day, shall be in thine heart:
And thou shalt teach them diligently unto thy children, and shalt talk of them when thou sittest in thine house, and when thou walkest by the way, and when thou liest down, and when thou risest up.
And thou shalt bind them for a sign upon thine hand, and they shall be as frontlets between thine eyes.
And thou shalt write them upon the posts of thy house, and on thy gates.
Be Informed. Be Discerning. Be Vigilant. Be Engaged. Be Prayerful.