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Government The Courts

States Launch Probe Into TikTok's Effect On Kids' Health (go.com) 24

Posted by BeauHD from the under-the-microscope dept.
An anonymous reader quotes a report from ABC News: State attorneys general have launched a nationwide investigation into TikTok and its possible harmful effects on young users' mental health, widening government scrutiny of the wildly popular video platform. The investigation was announced Wednesday by a number of states led by California, Florida, Kentucky, Massachusetts, Nebraska, New Jersey, Tennessee and Vermont. U.S. lawmakers and federal regulators have criticized TikTok, citing practices and computer-driven promotion of content they say can endanger the physical and mental health of young users. The platform has an estimated 1 billion monthly users and is especially popular with teens and younger children. Last month, Texas opened an investigation into TikTok's alleged violations of children's privacy and facilitation of human trafficking.

"Our children are growing up in the age of social media -- and many feel like they need to measure up to the filtered versions of reality that they see on their screens," California Attorney General Rob Bonta said in a news release. "We know this takes a devastating toll on children's mental health and well-being." Bonta said the investigation aims determine if TikTok is violating the law in promoting its platform to young people. Government officials and child-safety advocates maintain that TikTok's computer algorithms pushing video content to users can promote eating disorders and even self-harm and suicide to young viewers. "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 Wednesday. "We look forward to providing information on the many safety and privacy protections we have for teens."
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States Launch Probe Into TikTok's Effect On Kids' Health More

States Launch Probe Into TikTok's Effect On Kids' Health

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  • From government archives: "On April 27, 1953, the Judiciary Committee of the United States Senate created a Special Subcommittee on Juvenile Delinquency to investigate the causes of juvenile delinquency and to propose measures in response. The subcommittee examined several factors influencing young people, but it drew the most attention when it investigated the allegation that comic books contributed to the rise in juvenile crime."

    • Remember when Dungeons & Dragons was gonna make all teens satanists?

      • Tripper gore’s little war on rock music

        • I went to a Methodist University which was around a century old. One of my favorite memories was I was helping IT in the attic of an old building when I saw a box of old essays. In quickly skimming them I found one that was writing on Satanism and Rock Music. I had always thought this was a tall tale, like your parents telling you to eat your greens. I kept the paper and overall had a very liberal education but it's a fun reminder how these associations can form as serious debate...

      • There is a difference between self-selecting things and being manipulated where you only have/see certain options.

      • i remember the claims that certain cultures were using that product to push satanic values to "american" kids as well. and i remember reports of as many as 5% to 10% of "american" kids expressing interest in satanism and black magic after taking up playing. so was this product the victim of bad marketing?

    • Comic books, D&D, video games, etc. don't impact kids the way social media does. Heck, if we're being honest, we see how negatively social media often impacts **adults** who have way better impulse control on paper than kids and teens do.

      TikTok challenges and the culture around them, for example, have encouraged a lot of self-destructive behavior for nothing more than short term pseudo-celebrity and popularity points. The kids who jumped out of windows thinking they could fly after "too much D&D" we

      • Problem is, these sort of "think of the children" initiatives are actually government power grabs - they have very little to do about actually protecting children. If as a parent you don't want your kid using TikTok, both major smartphone platforms have parental control features for blocking specific apps.

        The government doesn't like how adults are using TikTok.

        • Re: (Score:2)

          by dcw3 ( 649211 )

          What power are you claiming the government is trying to grab? Be specific...I'm certain you can't.

          • i cannot be specific about who in congress at the time decided that public television had no positive effect on education or that there was not enough pornography of broadcast television as that argument was a long time ago,,,but i have definite opinions on those matters that my congressional representatives need to know. which i argue is more important than knowing what random rant in congress is being covered on the news, arguably. and yes, they can be the same argument but, that is why each state has 2 s

          • Control over access to the electorate. Pre-Internet, the press was a highly concentrated, advertiser controlled group of entities. Don't play nice and only publish our prepared press releases? Then you are not invited to the next press conference. Or we call your advertisers and suggest that they drop your publication. When everyone start their own blog, uploaded embarrasing video clips and have equal access to the public, this sort of control becomes much more difficult. It has only been recently that the

    • I thought you meant this deja vu [slashdot.org]
  • And that we're moving into near peer contests for our geopolitical battles that excuse why we have to spend almost a trillion dollars a year on our military, but how about doing something about Facebook which has dozens of studies that are peer-reviewed and replicable that show they cause massive amounts of harm both to children and to all of society...

    • how about doing something about Facebook which has dozens of studies that are peer-reviewed and replicable that show they cause massive amounts of harm both to children and to all of society...

      No. A thousand fucking times, no.

      Do you see what's going on in Russia, where their government is yanking the plug on every platform that rubs Putin the wrong way? That's the path you're heading down when you make the government the final arbiter of speech. For all the awful things that Facebook enables, none of it is as bad as the government censoring you, because they don't like what you have to say.

      Here in Florida, the Republican leadership is already trying to pass a "don't say gay" bill which would b

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by dcw3 ( 649211 )

        Let's be clear about the Florida bill. It only prohibits those discussions up through the third grade. Is there some reason to discuss homosexuality (or any sexuality for that matter) to children who are typically 8 years old or less?

        • Is there some reason to discuss homosexuality (or any sexuality for that matter) to children who are typically 8 years old or less?

          The problem is taking away that decision from the parents. It's the same deal with TikTok: the government steps in and says "We don't trust you to make decisions for your children, so we're doing it for you."

          If a parent doesn't want their kids on TikTok or for them to be taught the basics of human sexuality. That's their right as a parent, but it's also a responsibility - it shouldn't be the job of the nanny state.

        • Yes, because sometimes same-sex couples have children. By adoption, or from a previous relationship. Eight-year-olds are quite capable of picking up that a fellow student has two dads or two moms, and will do what children naturally do: Bully the class weirdo to improve their own social standing. How is the teacher supposed to step in if they are forbidden from even acknowledging the subject?

  • If only parents had a way of raising their kids to not continuously seek their peers' approval, and to learn how to uninstall apps.
  • So Tic Tok is bad ... but Facebook isn't ??? I guess Tic Tok didn't make enough campaign contributions.

  • It is brain rotting garbage. At first, I thought I was becoming an old curmudgeon before my time, but after spending a few minutes poking around the app, it appears to be a never ending kaleidoscope of people behaving in bizarre or disturbing ways, non-sensical robotic narration with strange childlike voices, how-to videos slowly turning garbage into more useless garbage, hypnotic imagery, women dancing, or just plain gross shit.

    In fact, there is nothing social about the app. It may be a platform that allow

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