It’s about “child protection and parental support,” said Vermont Attorney General Thomas Donovan: a coalition of eight U.S. states announced on Wednesday, March 2, the launch of an investigation into TikTok, a social network broadcast of videos for tens of seconds , musical or parody, in a continuous stream, changing according to the tastes of consumers.
Accused of harming the mental health of children, adolescents and young adults, TikTok is under investigation for its algorithms and marketing methods. The United States wants to study “techniques used to encourage young people” to spend more and more time there, respond to content and interact with creators, according to a press release issued by California, Florida, Kentucky, Massachusetts, Nebraska. , New Jersey, Tennessee and Vermont. According to a study by TikTok, quoted by the American media Wired, its users spend an average of one hour and twenty-five minutes a day there.
“Our children are growing up in the age of social media – and many feel the need to test themselves against these filtered versions of reality that they see on their screens,” said Rob Bonta, California’s attorney general, in a statement. “We know that this has a detrimental effect on the mental health and well-being of children. But we don’t know what the companies themselves knew and since when, “he added.
TikTok, a subsidiary of China’s ByteDance group, responded by promising to “provide information on the many security and privacy mechanisms we have for teenagers,” a spokesman said. “We are very concerned about building an experience that supports the well-being of our community, and we appreciate that prosecutors general are focusing on the safety of the youngest consumers. »
In the United States, TikTok is available for children under 13 thanks to a special version of the social network designed for them, while in France the application is theoretically banned for children in this age group. TikTok claims one billion active users worldwide.
Instagram is also targeted
This investigation follows the investigation conducted by Meta, the parent company of Facebook, from the same eight US states. They accuse the social media giant of promoting Instagram among young people and ignoring internal reports of the suffering the app may have uncovered last fall by whistleblower Francis Haugen.
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Meta’s internal study “shows that the use of Instagram is associated with an increased risk of damaging the physical and mental health of young people, including depression, eating disorders and even suicide,” said then-Massachusetts Attorney General Maura Healy. “The group failed to protect young people on its platforms and instead chose to ignore and in some cases even intensify practices that pose a real threat to physical and mental health – thus exploiting children to earn a living,” she said.
In September, Instagram stopped developing its version aimed at people under the age of 13, days after an Wall Street Journal investigation was published based on internal documents uncovered by Francis Haugen. The social network announced that it wants to “better take the time” to consult with parents and experts, “to demonstrate the value and necessity” of this version, intended for children.
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Excluding this pause, protests and accusations by elected officials and prosecutors have had little tangible impact on the companies concerned. Although in recent years the US authorities have hardened their tone against the main platforms, they lack concrete and quick solutions, given the delays in the courts or the restrictions on the adoption of new laws.
“I don’t think TikTok has anything to worry about,” said analyst Carolina Milanesi of Creative Strategies. “They will have to do the same number as Meta, that is, detail their security features,” but “this will have no effect on usage.”