TikTok allegedly knows how detrimental its app is to teenagers.

Documents obtained through a lawsuit filed by the Kentucky Attorney General’s Office reveal how the executives and employees of the app were well aware that features on TikTok promote compulsive usage leading to adverse mental health outcomes. Internal findings indicate that this application was simply engineered to function like an addiction machine and took primary aim at children who are still developing the self-control to manage their screen time.

The company’s research uncovered an unsettling association of compulsive use with declines in critical analytical skills, difficulties in forming memories, reduction in capacity to think contextually, diminished depth in conversations, lack of empathy, and heightened levels of anxiety. Generally, these are reasons to be highly concerned about the long-term implications of extensive use among young and impressionable users.

Despite the app’s time-management tool already put in place to help young users reduce time on the platform, such measures tend to barely make a difference. Reports said teenagers were still averaging 107 minutes per day on the app even when the tool had been activated.

Furthermore, TikTok was aware of the idea of “filter bubbles,” which is a phenomenon wherein users are exposed to information that confirms their pre-existing views and, at the same time, isolates them from other opinions. Workers of the company said they often found themselves caught in these negative bubbles after viewing specific accounts, indicating just how hard it was to monitor content on the site.

Besides that, it also knows how much content, despite the violation of community guidelines, passes through its moderation processes, making the goal of a safe environment even more difficult to achieve. Reacting to the allegations of the complaint, TikTok spokesman Alex Haurek spoke on behalf of the company. The spokesman defended practices, saying that the complaint filed by the Kentucky Attorney General distorts the commitment to community safety by the organization and that robust safeguards have been imposed for user protection.

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