The case of the student from Călăraşi who allegedly committed suicide by being influenced by a challenge on TikTok should be a big alarm signal first of all for parents: social networks work like any other drug, and children’s addiction is only a click away distance. But of all the online platforms, TikTok is by far the most dangerous, experts say.
Children have social media accounts from younger and younger ages. Archive
TikTok is an online social network that imposes very few restrictions. It is a free space, almost without borders, where any user can upload any type of audio-video information, where transmitted messages are not properly filtered, and children are not protected as they should be. Although, in recent years the network has undergone some improvements. But not enough, experts claim.
Why are kids getting addicted to TikTok
“For many reasons”psychologist Radu Leca explained for “Adevărul”. “First, the platform allows, as other social networks do not, to zoom in on the image by simply swiping with two fingers on the screen of any uploaded video. Basically, users can zoom in on the video while it’s playing, becoming addicted to the details. Neither Facebook nor YouTube allow this zoom”, said the specialist.
The scrolling speed of uploaded videos is also addictive. “The speed of circulation of images on TikTok is clearly superior, if we compare it with what happens on other networks. Here is one more dependency parameter. Both Facebook and Youtube have a delay called video lag. And at some point, the user gets bored. That doesn’t happen on TikTok. On the contrary. Information flows at a dizzying speed, precisely in order not to bore, not to lose the user, to prevent him from directing his attention to something else. He is caught there and kept well.”
If an adult can tell when they are overdoing their use of this platform, can set limits, can disconnect from online, a teenager cannot. And the consequences are among the most serious. “First of all, the strongest impact is seen in terms of children’s mental health, which can be severely affected. Let me explain why: on TikTok, the user can set certain videos to play in their feed according to certain categories. Imagine the mental and emotional impact images of sex scenes, funerals, accidents, murders or even executions can have on a child. The teenager is exposed to terrible images, which affect a full adult..but a child…limb amputations, surgical interventions, various incisions, wound drainage, infected wounds, etc. Then, let’s not forget an equally serious aspect: TikTok allows users to chat with each other, and here it can appear cyberbullyingthe”
Trends launched on TikTok are destroying lives
Another danger is the so-called “trend” concept that the platform actively promotes. Those challenges that users issue to each other. “TikTok also uses the trend concept, and the challenges created in Russia, in the United States of America, in Pakistan, in Malaysia, are also easily spread at the European level. The newest challenge at the moment is represented by a teenager in a large supermarket emptying a carton of eggs and replacing them with kinder eggs”continues Radu Leca.
But from a simple and innocent prank to serious, harmful, life-threatening actions is but a step. “Another trend is to cover your nose and mouth with various textiles and start the timer until you pass out. Basically, until you choke. Another trend currently circulating among TikTok users in Romania is to cause bulky furniture or other heavy objects to fall on you: beds, mattresses, etc. And these car accidents are filmed. They are filming the moment itself, as well as the reaction of the victim caught below. And one more thing: there are children who are provoked to self-mutilation. Cutting or indenting the skin on the calves, thighs or hands and inserting various small objects under the skin”the psychologist recalls.
In July 2024, the police signaled that young people accept a new challenge on TikTok: call 112 and keep the line busy. But before they call 112, they collect money from other users to do so. Then they would make up various reasons that they would tell the 112 operator, such as that they are locked in the bathroom and can’t get out. Also this summer, the police reported another challenge on TikTok: teenagers were challenged to climb tall buildings and take pictures.
Young people are not only exposed to extremely violent messages, but they are also manipulated on Tik Tok, says Radu Leca. “I wonder why in a feed that you organize as you wish, according to your preferences, in areas such as home, fashion, animals, cars…etc…, from time to time you see and videos unrelated to the content you choose. You did not look for them, you are not interested in the field, but nevertheless they appear. And many of these images promote messages with more or less sexual overtones. It is interesting that in some countries this practice is restricted”, says the psychologist Radu Leca.
How to Detox Kids Addicted to TikTok
“The first rule that is not respected in Romania is the ban on the use of the TikTok platform by young people under 13 years old. In other words, if you have a teenager under 13 as a parent, you don’t allow them and you make sure they haven’t installed and aren’t using TikTok.” says the psychologist Mihai Copăceanu.
Then, parents should limit the daily and weekly time their children spend on TikTok. Last but not least, parents or young people should report to the authorities the moment they become aware of the existence of messages or videos with harmful content that encourage self-harm. It is, more precisely, about those challenges that endanger the life, safety and integrity of children. “Cognitive psychology teaches us one essential thing: the prefrontal cortex reaches full maturity only around the age of 25. And that’s why they need their parents’ prefrontal cortex, their monitoring and their rules.” says Mihai Copăceanu.
Radu Leca is much more blunt and believes that in situations of dependency, the parent must assert himself, take the bull by the horns, as it were:The child should be enrolled in a sport. Martial arts would be indicated. Then mind sports help a lot: chess or GO classes. For children under 13, parents should create daily reading and writing schedules. For those over 13 years of age, it would be recommended that their parents take them to the theater or movie several times a week. The reason? The cinema screen will replace the pixels of the mobile phone, inside the TikTok space. Likewise, the colors that the child’s brain is exposed to when watching a movie will replace those provided by the social network. This can be called a brain detox program. By exposing children over the age of 13 to a screen a hundred times larger than the phone screen will flatten, but not eliminate the need, the use of this space called TikTok”.
Psychologist Radu Leca recommends parents to take their children out of the house and go on shorter or longer bicycle trips together. “Bike tours don’t allow you to use your phone. And they can be a way to make you forget about him.”
Children put their lives in danger out of fear
Adolescents, psychologist Mihai Copăceanu continues, do not want to put their lives in danger. “They are very tempted to do things that expose themselves to risk precisely to push their limits, to gain new courage and to show others what they are capable of. In other words, it is an action of deep character socially, no one will respond to a challenge only for himself, without the others not knowing it”. It is about an exaggerated terribleness.
Mihai Copăceanu specifies, however, that there is also a certain “hype and a lot of false demonization of TikTok about the potentially deadly challenges. These are exceptions, they are below 1%, they are not allowed by the platform and they are blocked. That’s not where the troubles come from.” And psychologist Radu Leca admits that, in recent years, TikTok has come up with improvements in terms of user safety. “Many videos are restricted by platform representatives. But if there were users who viewed that content and saved it, they can redistribute it. This is where the people from TikTok still have work to do. But really, compared to 2022, very big improvements have been made. But some bumps were also left”
A study by Save the Children Romania from February 2024 shows that starting from 5-10 years old, children in Romania start spending more and more time on social networks. The research shows that 32% of parents with children of this age say that their son/daughter uses TikTok, 21% Instagram, 19% Facebook and 17% Snapchat. The study shows that 77% of children say that they spend at least three hours a day on the Internet.
Regarding the use of time online, 35% of young people stated that they spend more than two hours daily on social networks, and 18.5% spend more than three hours.
