{"id":1285149,"date":"2022-02-09T12:38:11","date_gmt":"2022-02-09T17:38:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=1285149"},"modified":"2022-02-09T12:38:15","modified_gmt":"2022-02-09T17:38:15","slug":"chinas-tiktok-helps-teens-go-viral-with-racy-videos-harming-mental-health","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/chinas-tiktok-helps-teens-go-viral-with-racy-videos-harming-mental-health\/","title":{"rendered":"China&#039;s TikTok Helps Teens Go Viral with Racy Videos, Harming Mental Health"},"content":{"rendered":"<aside class=\"mashsb-container mashsb-main mashsb-stretched\"><div class=\"mashsb-box\"><div class=\"mashsb-count mash-medium\" style=\"&quot;\"><div class=\"counts mashsbcount\">24<\/div><span class=\"mashsb-sharetext\">SHARES<\/span><\/div><div class=\"mashsb-buttons\"><a class=\"mashicon-facebook mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/sharer.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.conservativenewsdaily.net%2Fbreaking-news%2Fchinas-tiktok-helps-teens-go-viral-with-racy-videos-harming-mental-health%2F\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Facebook<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-twitter mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/intent\/tweet?text=&amp;url=https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=1285149&amp;via=ConservNewsDly\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Twitter<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-subscribe mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"#\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Subscribe<\/span><\/a><div class=\"onoffswitch2 mash-medium mashsb-noshadow\" style=\"display:none\"><\/div><\/div>\n            <\/div>\n                <div style=\"clear:both\"><\/div><\/aside>\n            <!-- Share buttons by mashshare.net - Version: 4.0.47--><p class=\"subheading\">The algorithm for the Chinese-owned TikTok app makes it easier for teens to go viral and gain internet fame, especially with sexualized videos. But the downside of posting racy videos to social media is the toll taken on teens\u2019 mental health, according to mental health professionals.<\/p>\n<p>To the dismay of many, the Chinese-owned social media app TikTok has become the preferred platform amongst teens today.<\/p>\n<figure id=\"D-ROS-B1\" class=\"a8d\"><\/figure>\n<figure id=\"M-ROS-B1\" class=\"a8d\"><\/figure>\n<figure id=\"gmxrevmore\" class=\"H\"><\/figure>\n<div id=\"attachment_17963418\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/10\/Three-girls-watching-TikTok-videos.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-17963418\" src=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/10\/Three-girls-watching-TikTok-videos.jpg\" alt=\"Three girls watching TikTok videos\" width=\"640\" height=\"480\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-caption-text\">Three girls watching TikTok videos (Luiza Nalimova\/Getty)<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div id=\"attachment_17550450\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/12\/ByteDance-CEO-Zhang-Yiming.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-17550450\" src=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/12\/ByteDance-CEO-Zhang-Yiming.jpg\" alt=\"ByteDance CEO Zhang Yiming\" width=\"640\" height=\"480\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-caption-text\">ByteDance CEO Zhang Yiming, TikTok\u2019s owner. (STR\/Getty)<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p>But unlike other social media platforms \u2014 such as Facebook, Instagram, YouTube, and Twitter \u2014 going viral on TikTok and becoming \u201cTikTok famous\u201d is much easier and quicker,&nbsp;according to a <a href=\"https:\/\/www.wsj.com\/articles\/teen-girls-sexy-tiktok-videos-take-a-mental-health-toll-11644016839?mod=hp_trending_now_article_pos4\">report<\/a> by the <em>Wall Street Journal<\/em>.<\/p>\n<figure id=\"M-ROS-B2\" class=\"a8d\"><\/figure>\n<p>TikTok weighs whether viewers show strong interest in a particular type of content \u2014 measured by whether they finish watching videos \u2014 the company says. The app\u2019s&nbsp;recommendation engine then chooses videos to send to viewers, regardless of the creator\u2019s follower count or past video virality.<\/p>\n<p>Given that TikTok users appear to take more of an interest in sexual or risqu\u00e9 content, teens have realized that the more sexual their videos are, the more likely they are to get likes or go viral, mental health professionals say.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cMany of them have figured out that the formula for that is producing more sexual content,\u201d said Carter Barnhart, co-founder of Charlie Health, a virtual mental health care provider.<\/p>\n<p>Barnhart added that a&nbsp;growing number of teens she treats report their self-esteem is dependent on how many likes they get on TikTok.<\/p>\n<p>Jula Anderson, for example, joined TikTok when she was 16. Her first video featuring her family\u2019s home renovations only got five likes. But when she saw that other users were posting more suggestive content, she tried it, too.<\/p>\n<figure id=\"M-ROS-B3\" class=\"a8d adSo\"><\/figure>\n<p>\u201cI wanted to get famous on TikTok, and I learned that if you post stuff showing your body, people will start liking it,\u201d&nbsp;Anderson, now an 18-year-old high school student, told the <em>Wall Street Journal<\/em>.<\/p>\n<p>A few months later, the teen\u2019s wish came true, as a video of her&nbsp;wearing a tight-fitting tank top while lip-syncing to \u201cSunday Best\u201d by Surfaces went viral, the newspaper reports.<\/p>\n<figure id=\"D-ROS-B2\" class=\"a8d\"><\/figure>\n<p>TikTok\u2019s algorithm had pushed the video to viewers\u2019 \u201cFor You\u201d pages, which resulted in more than one million people viewing the content, and nearly 500,000 people liking it.<\/p>\n<p>Anderson\u2019s TikTok following&nbsp;then went from a few hundred users to more than 200,000. The comment section of the teen\u2019s video was then&nbsp;inundated with boys and men saying how hot she looked. Inspired by the success, Anderson made her videos more risqu\u00e9.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI\u2019d wear clothes that I wouldn\u2019t wear to school but that I felt good in,\u201d she said. \u201cI didn\u2019t view them as that sexual, but other people did.\u201d<\/p>\n<figure id=\"M-ROS-B4\" class=\"a8d adSo\"><\/figure>\n<p>The teen then found herself constantly checking her TikTok likes, saying, \u201cIt was&nbsp;my whole world.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>When Anderson\u2019s parents later discovered their teenage daughter\u2019s suggestive video content on TikTok, they confronted her about it, to which Anderson said, \u201cMom, that\u2019s what everyone is doing,\u201d according to the teen\u2019s mother,&nbsp;Shauna.<\/p>\n<p>The teen\u2019s mother, in part, blamed the isolation stemming from the Chinese coronavirus, which she says intensified her daughter\u2019s need to find connection with others.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cShe thought this was a way to be liked and have friends,\u201d&nbsp;Shauna said.<\/p>\n<p>Mental health professionals say they are concerned about how teen girls will be affected by posting sexualized content on TikTok, and that young girls are oftentimes&nbsp;anxious and overwhelmed by the attention they get after posting suggestive videos.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cFor a young girl who\u2019s developing her identity, to be swept up into a sexual world like that is hugely destructive,\u201d said Paul Sunseri, a psychologist and director of the New Horizons Child and Family Institute in California.<\/p>\n<p>Last year, Anderson began receiving treatment at the New Horizons Child and Family Institute for anxiety and depression.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWhen teen girls are rewarded for their sexuality, they come to believe that their value is in how they look,\u201d&nbsp;Sunseri said.<\/p>\n<p>Sunseri added that&nbsp;roughly a quarter of the female patients at his clinic have produced sexualized content on TikTok.<\/p>\n<p><em>You can follow Alana&nbsp;Mastrangelo on&nbsp;<a class=\"x5l\" href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/ARmastrangelo\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener external\">Facebook<\/a>&nbsp;and Twitter at&nbsp;<a class=\"x5l\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/ARmastrangelo\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener external\">@ARmastrangelo<\/a>, and on&nbsp;<a class=\"x5l\" href=\"https:\/\/www.instagram.com\/alanamastrangelo\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener external\">Instagram<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The algorithm for the Chinese-owned TikTok app makes it easier for teens to go viral and gain internet fame, especially with sexualized videos. But the downside of posting racy videos &#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":2315279,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mo_disable_npp":"","fifu_image_url":"","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1285149","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1285149","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1285149"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1285149\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2315279"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1285149"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1285149"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1285149"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}