TikTok is not a game. It is a risk to our teenagers’ mental health

Every generation has its own challenges. But there are times when we adults have a duty to speak clearly. This is one of them.

Far from being a neutral or fun platform, TikTok poses a real and documented danger to the mental health of children and teenagers. As a school, as families, as a society, we cannot keep ignoring it.

It is not innocent. It is addictive by design

TikTok is built on an extremely sophisticated algorithm that learns from the user’s behavior every second: how long they watch a video, what they react to, what they replay, what has an emotional impact on them. It does not aim to educate or entertain. It aims to keep people watching.

The goal is not for teenagers to learn something, but for them never to stop watching. And the more they watch, the more trapped they become in a spiral of stimulation and emotional dependence.

The US public broadcaster NPR published an investigation showing that TikTok has known for years about the addictive effects of its algorithm on teenagers, and has done very little to mitigate them, even though its risks are acknowledged internally.

Documented effects: anxiety, dissociation, eating disorders

Many scientific studies back up what many families already sense from direct experience. These are some of the most relevant findings:

• A study by the Universitat Oberta de Catalunya and Universitat Pompeu Fabra, published in Nature Scientific Reports, validated a specific scale for measuring TikTok addiction in young university students. Excessive use was significantly associated with symptoms of anxiety, depression and emotional dissociation.
• The University of California, San Francisco (UCSF) analyzed more than 10,000 children aged 11 to 15 and concluded that most use TikTok every day, despite age restrictions. Many of them show signs of problematic use: needing to check the app constantly, emotional avoidance, interference with schoolwork and difficulty stopping even when they want to.
• Harvard Medical School documented a growing phenomenon among teenagers: motor and vocal tics appearing after watching TikTok videos of people with Tourette syndrome. Although these symptoms do not have a neurological origin, they are real for those who experience them and improve when exposure to this kind of content is reduced. It is a contemporary form of screen-mediated sociogenic illness.
• A study published in the Revista de Comunicación y Salud showed that TikTok not only allows but often promotes content that normalizes eating disorders, especially among teenage girls. Profiles that interact with videos about extreme diets, calorie control or dysmorphic body ideals receive more and more content along those lines, reinforcing harmful patterns.
• Amnesty International published a report stating that, within minutes, TikTok can lead children and teenagers into spirals of content about self-harm, suicide, eating disorders, dysphoria or identity crises, without effective filters or adequate protection systems.

Institutions are acting, but the damage is already happening

In March 2024, the New York State Attorney General’s office filed a formal lawsuit against TikTok for seriously harming minors’ mental health. According to Attorney General Letitia James, TikTok has used addictive, dark and manipulative features to hook children and teenagers and keep them scrolling through the app endlessly, which has worsened the youth mental health crisis.

This legal action is part of a broader coalition of states that have opened investigations or filed lawsuits against the company over practices harmful to minors, and is based on violations of consumer and child protection laws (AG NY, 2024; Swissinfo, 2024).

In addition, a federal investigation has been opened in the United States into the mass collection of minors’ personal and biometric data, including facial movements and voice patterns.

TikTok and the destruction of human connection

One of the least visible but most profound effects is the erosion of genuine human relationships. Relating face to face has always involved a certain tension. That is normal, and it is part of development. Human bonds are built little by little, through gradual exposure to other people’s gaze, handling uncertainty, empathy and time spent together.

This process engages our hormonal system, regulates cortisol, oxytocin and dopamine, and lets us develop skills such as emotional self-regulation and tolerance for frustration. But TikTok offers an illusion. A simulation of connection without risk, without friction, without waiting. An artificial paradise where everything is filtered, cut, repeated and edited.

The result is that many teenagers no longer know how to be with other people and choose to avoid real social interaction. They feel anxious when they go out, avoid direct contact and isolate themselves even when they are with others. Excessive use of social networks such as TikTok is amplifying cases of social phobia, emotional withdrawal and difficulty forming real, lasting bonds.

What we can do as families

The answer is not to ban the whole internet. The answer is to discern. Not everything digital is the same. There are tools, such as artificial intelligence applied to learning, that help people grow, think and create, and in which the user is in control. But commercial social networks based on opaque algorithms do not have that purpose. They are designed to manipulate, not to educate. And they do so with hidden, undisclosed algorithms.

TikTok is neither an educational nor a healthy space. It is a platform that has proven to be harmful, both in its design and in its impact.

That is why, at Dragon American School, we clearly and firmly recommend:

Keeping TikTok out of teenagers’ lives.

And also:

• Encouraging real human contact. Let them invite friends over, go to other people’s homes, go out, walk, get bored, laugh without screens in front of them. Let them put themselves out there and learn to handle social tension.
• Limiting phone use at social times, especially at home.
• Speaking clearly. Explaining why certain platforms are harmful and why we need to protect ourselves from them.
• Offering emotional support. Teenagers do not need screens to distract them, but adults who listen to them, support them and teach them to live in the world with presence.

Sources and resources

• Harvard Health – Tics and TikTok
• Amnesty International – TikTok and harmful content
• Universitat Oberta de Catalunya – TikTok addiction
• UCSF – TikTok and minors
• New York Attorney General – Lawsuit against TikTok
• Swissinfo – Institutional coverage of the lawsuit
• Revista de Comunicación y Salud – TikTok and eating disorders
• thesocialdilemma.com