Jakarta, CNBC Indonesia – It cannot be denied that scrolling TikTok has become part of the daily lives of many modern people today. Boom TikTok not only occurs among adults, but also children and teenagers.
The latest research conducted by Amnesy International reveals the results of a global study regarding the dangers of TikTok content, especially for children and teenagers. TikTok’s content recommendation system, or what is commonly called FYP, and its invasive data collection practices pose a danger, one of which is by promoting depressive and suicidal content which risks worsening young people’s mental health.
A technical study in collaboration with the Algorithmic Transparency Institute and AI forensics concluded that there are dangers lurking in children in feeds FYP, which is the hallmark of the TikTok platform.
The report wrote that when researchers, who used automated accounts, wasted time scrolling on TikTok for 5-6 hours, there are 1 in 2 videos related to mental health and potentially dangerous.
When researchers scrolling manually for 3 to 20 minutes, they found that half of the content in the TikTok feed was related to mental health to content that encouraged suicide as a “normal” act.
“These findings reveal TikTok’s manipulative and addictive practices and design, designed to keep users scrolling as long as possible. “It also shows that the platform’s algorithmic content recommendation systems, which are thought to be driving the platform’s growth globally, are putting children and young adults with mental health challenges at serious risk of harm,” said Lisa Dittmer, Amnesty International Researcher.
In general, Amnesty International’s research shows that TikTok’s business model is fundamentally dangerous because it encourages engagement to keep users on the platform, to collect more data about them. TikTok then uses this data to perform profiling and draw conclusions about the user. This data allows TikTok to group users into specific categories to target them with highly personalized content, including ads, to keep them using the platform.
Research on TikTok is still limited, but health experts, education experts and parents have noticed a worrying trend regarding children’s ability to focus for long periods of time. And experts say watching too much, especially on TikTok, is at least part of the cause.
“While we don’t have long-term studies yet, there’s no doubt that TikTok affects the brain, and children’s brains are still developing in their early to mid-20s,” said Jessica Griffin, a professor of psychiatry and pediatrics at the University of Massachusetts Medical School, as quoted from Verywell.
Previous research published in International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health found that those in the category of TikTok addiction had a decrease in working memory capacity. Survey participants also had high scores on depression, anxiety and stress.
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