Source: Tribune India
TikTok has come under investigation this week by a group of attorneys. This group of state attorneys general are from the American sates of California, Florida, Kentucky and a few more. TikTok is reported to be under investigation for its impact on the mental and physical health of its young users.
This coalition of attorneys general is seeking to determine how the social media video streaming platform works, and how its markets and designs negatively impacts the health of children, teens and young adults all over. This piece of information came forward from a press release from Massachusetts’ Attorney General Maura Healey.
TikTok’ algorithm works in a manner to look into the content users are viewing on the platform. This has proven to be rather effective at maintaining the users’ engagement on the app. It is difficult to exactly grasp how this works despite the company offering insights into the workings of the system.
The current investigation surrounds “the methods and techniques” used by TikTok uses to “boost young user engagement, including increasing the duration of time spent on the platform,” according to Healey.
Previously, TikTok had been struggling to fulfil the requirements for young users and ended up paying $5.7 million to the FTC. This was in 2019 to reach a settlement when ‘Musical.ly,’ its predecessor, was accused of not acquiring permission from the young users’ parents while signing up. This resulted in TikTok placing strict limits for users aged below 13 as to what content they engaged with on the app. Ben Rathe, a spokesperson from TikTok informed that they appreciated the concerned attorneys general looking into younger users’ safety. The company is ready to hand over any information regarding protections placed on the app for adequate safety and privacy.
Crucially, this investigative step could also effect other social media companies other than TikTok, like Snapchat or Meta. These companies have been known to gain inspiration from TikTok as they formed its latest features. They duplicated its short-form video model after noticing that teens spent more time on TikTok than Instagram or Youtube.
As President Joe Biden highlighted the topic of children’s safety online in his State of the Union address, regulators are focussing on it. Biden called on the Congress to pass laws aiming to regulate privacy for kids. Meta was at centre of these hearings after being accused of ignoring research on teenager’s health. They are now focussing on their separate investigation to curb Instagram’s effect on youngsters’ mental health.
