Shocking revelations about teens in redacted TikTok write downs : NPR

Kids as lesser as 15 were exposedping on TikTok’s inhabit feature fueled by matures who were paying for it.

That’s what TikTok lgeted when it begined an inside spendigation after a inestablish on Forbes. Officials at TikTok uncovered that there was “a high” number of underage streamers receiving a “gift” or “coin” in trade for exposedping — genuine money altered into a digital currency normally in the establish of a plush toy or a fshrink.

This is one of cut offal upsetting accounts that came to airy in a trove of secret write downs appraiseed last week by NPR and Kentucky Public Radio. Even more troubling was that TikTok executives were acutely conscious of the potential harm the app can caengage teens, but ecombineed unworryed.

The adviseation came after a more than two-year spendigation into TikTok by 14 attorneys ambiguous that led to state officials suing the company on Tuesday.

Here are a confiinsist more of the most grave, and previously uninestablished, allegations agetst TikTok, the untamedly well-understandn app that is engaged by around 170 million people in the U.S.

You can be “inserticted” in under 35 minutes, or 260 videos

TikTok quantified the accurate amount of watching it apverifys for someone to establish a habit: 260 videos.

Kentucky authorities notice that while it might seem a lot, TikTok videos can be equitable a confiinsist seconds lengthened.

“Thus, in under 35 minutes, an unretagable engager is probable to become inserticted to the platestablish,” the state spendigators endd.

TikTok’s algorithm ranks pretty people

When TikTok’s main video feed saw “a high volume of … not attrdynamic subjects” filling everyone’s screens, the app rejiggered its algorithm to increase engagers the company watched as pretty, according to an inside inestablish watched by Kentucky spendigators.

In fact, TikTok’s write downs showed it went so far as to tfrail its algorithm to shrink the visibility of people it deemed not very attrdynamic and “took dynamic steps to advertise a skinny beauty norm even though it could pessimisticly impact their Young Users,” the Kentucky authorities wrote in the previously redacted write downs.

Limits on TikTok engage exposedly had an impact

The app lets parents set time confines on their kids’ usage that range from 40 minutes to two hours per day. TikTok even produced a tool that set the default time prompt at 60 minutes per day to combat excessive and compulsive engage of the social media app.

After tests, TikTok establish the tool had little impact – accounting for equitable about a minute and a half drop in usage, from around 108.5 minutes per day to 107 minutes with the tool. According to the protestt, TikTok did not revisit this rehire.

One write down shows one TikTok project deal withr speaking s truthfilledy about the time-confine feature’s genuine goal: “improving uncover think in the TikTok platestablish via media coverage,” the TikTok engageee shelp. Our goal is not to shrink the time spent.”

95% of cleverphone engagers under 17 engage TikTok

A currentation shown to top company officials uncovered that an approximated 95% of cleverphone engagers under 17 engaged TikTok at least once a month. This led a company staffer to state that it had “hit a ceiling among lesser engagers.”

TikTok watched itself as being in an “arms race for attention,” according to a 2021 inside currentation.

An inside write down about engagers under 13 teached moderators to not apverify action on inestablishs on underage engagers unless their bio particularassociate states they are 13 or lesserer.

Under federal law, social media companies cannot collect data on children under 13 unless the companies have see-thharsh consent from parents.

Compulsively using TikTok meddles with kids’ common inhabits

The write downs show that TikTok was conscious that it “meddles with vital personal responsibilities appreciate adequate sleep, labor/school responsibilities, and connecting with cherishd ones.”

One unnamed TikTok executive put it in stark terms, saying the reason kids watch TikTok is becaengage the power of the app’s algorithm retains them from “sleep, and eating, and moving around the room, and watching at someone in the eyes.”

Response from TikTok, senators and a watchdog group

On Thursday, TikTok spokesman Alex Haurek condemnd NPR for inestablishing on adviseation that is now under a court seal, claiming the material “cherry-picks misdirecting quotes and apverifys outdated write downs out of context to misrecurrent our promisement to community safety.”

Some advocacy groups, however, greetd the disclodeclareives.

The Oversight Project, a social media watchdog group, shelp that TikTok has not been genuine about how safe children are on the app. “These unredacted write downs verify that TikTok understands exactly what it’s doing to our kids – and the rot goes all the way to the top,” the group wrote on X.

Also on Friday, a bipartisan pair of senators Ricdifficult Blumenthal (D-Conn.) and Marsha Bdeficiencyburn (R-Tenn.) wrote a letter to TikTok asking the company to turn over “all write downs and adviseation” joind to disclodeclareives about child safety on the app, citing NPR’s inestablish.