GRAND RAPIDS, Mich — One of the big arguments for the ban on TikTok is growing evidence that social media use can be harmful to kid's mental health with the U.S. Surgeon General going as far as to write an opinion piece in the New York Times last year - calling on Congress to add warning labels to social media platforms.
The research between mental health and social media use is ongoing, but there are several factors according to the University of Michigan Department of Psychiatry.
Researchers point to a connection between mental health issues and social media use in teens and young adults. As of 2022, 95% of kids ages 13-17 said they use social media "almost constantly". And teens can face exposure to harmful content, cyberbullying, dangerous people ,and privacy concerns on all social media platforms - including TikTok- which is owned by A Chinese-based company.
"If you think about YouTube, Instagram, Snapchat and TikTock, TikTok is pretty unique among its peers in that it is owned by a foreign country that doesn't like us very much, right? I think that's a really unique part of Tiktok that we as parents, I think always need to have in mind." Owner of Protect Young Eyes, Chris McKenna told FOX17. "There are features in Tiktok that are also unique, that make it uniquely compulsive and addictive for young brains, but from a pure national security perspective, which is really what's being argued right now. It's why Tiktok is in the news."
But even if TikTok is banned here in the U.S. it doesn't solve the possible link between social media use and mental health issues. McKenna told us that parents need to develop guidelines for social media use and get involved with their children.
"Every single parent that has a child who wants to use TikTok or who has TikTok should also be using it themselves so they can experience what their children are experiencing, so they can see right out of the gate,” says McKenna. “If you were to create an account as a 13-year-old and actually tell TikTok that your birthday is age 13— as I've done multiple times with test accounts right out of the gate— The very first video that I was shown was a man who flipped me off and showed me a whole bunch of $100 bills, because I can make a ton of money."
And that wasn't a one-off experience, McKenna shared.
"The next video was a stuffed version of a stuffed toy of SpongeBob with an empty bottle of Jack Daniels next to him because he had been drinking all night long with his friend, right?" he told FOX 17. "So as a 13-year-old, these are the very first videos that I was shown on a platform that's supposedly appropriate for seventh graders, that's what age 13 is, right? So as parents, we completely underestimate not only the addictiveness of it, but the types of content."
McKenna explains that the algorithm doesn't understand anything— especially whether a person should have access to certain content— it just follows what it has been programmed to equate to interest.
"I'm not just talking about pornography," McKenna said. "I'm talking about mature adult content that young brains simply should not be seeing too much too soon, well ahead of schedule when they're supposed to be processing that kind of mature information, and we're letting them just peruse that for hours and hours, and that algorithm sees that they pause on those things, therefore it shows them more of those things."
A federal appeals court previously upheld the law. But it remains unclear whether Supreme Court justices will agree with the lower court, or move to allow TikTok to remain operational in the U.S.
READ MORE: Supreme Court set to hear arguments over TikTok ban
Read more stories from the FOX 17 Morning News team
Do you have an idea for the Morning News team or maybe an idea for a guest segment or something for the gang to come out and try? Send them an email at mornings@fox17online.com or call 616-447-5252 and leave a message.
Follow FOX 17: Facebook - X (formerly Twitter) - Instagram - YouTube
