8 states investigate TikTok’s effect on young users’ mental health

At least eight states are joining together to investigate the effect TikTok has on the mental health of teens and young adults.

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The attorneys general announced that they are looking into how the social media video platform, which is owned by the Chinese company ByteDance, courted young users to stay on the app.

“State attorneys general have an imperative to protect young people and seek more information about how companies like TikTok are influencing their daily lives,” Massachusetts Attorney General Maura Healey said in a statement, according to The New York Times.

Healey, along with attorneys general from California, Connecticut, Florida, Kentucky, Nebraska, New Jersey, Tennessee and Vermont, is examining if the social media platform goes against their states’ consumer protection laws, CNN reported.

Connecticut Attorney General William Tong said the “reckless viral challenges” on TikTok were the reason for his concern.

TikTok responded by saying that it has introduced safety and privacy settings designed for teens.

“We care deeply about building an experience that helps to protect and support the well-being of our community and appreciate that the state attorneys general are focusing on the safety of younger users,” the company said in a statement, according to the Times.

Tong said he wants to know what risks TikTok knew about before putting in the new settings for teens, CNN reported.

TikTok is the latest social media platform investigated by various governmental bodies about the effects they have on teens.

Meta, the parent company of Facebook and Instagram, had been investigated across various states, and multiple attorneys general had called on the company to stop its planned development of an Instagram for children under the age of 13, CNN reported.

President Joe Biden also called out social media and the advertising that comes with it during his State of the Union Address earlier this week, saying, “We must hold social media accountable for the national experiment they’re conducting on our children for profit,” The New York Times reported.

Dr. Ellen Braaten, a licensed child psychologist at Massachusetts General Hospital, told WFXT, “It helps parents take a step back and think, this is a serious issue … in serious enough ways that our legal system is willing to investigate it.”

Braaten admits that social media is front and center in kids’ lives, but hopes that the investigation will help spread the message to families on how TikTok’s algorithm manipulates users.

“Social media is part of our kids’ lives. It’s not just an add-on. It’s part of what they do on a daily basis,” Braaten said, according to WFXT. “It’s influencing their behaviors and their feelings and their values.”

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