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Last Thursday, the Senate Committee of Inquiry into the influence of the social network TikTok shed light on the effects of the application on the youngest. Between real effects and received ideas, the experts have drawn up their assessment. Points to remember.
The social network TikTok is a hit with the youngest, but this is not necessarily good news for their mental health. This is at least what emerges from the Senate commission of inquiry, which began last March and which dealt with the psychological effects of the application.
70% of TikTok users are under 24
This commission of inquiry, in which 19 senators participated, had the main objective of “determine whether the content promoted by TikTok changes from one country to another, whether these differences in operation have the purpose or effect of serving a strategy to harm foreign users of TikTok, cohesion or security of foreign states”but also to see “if TikTok has breached its personal data protection obligations”.
Result, after several months of waiting? The figures listed by the chairman of the commission, Mickaël Vallet, senator of the Socialist, Ecologist and Republican (SER) group, speak for themselves.
In France, 70% of TikTok users are under 24 and 40% of 16-25 year olds spend time on the app daily.
4-18 year olds seem addicted to the app since they spend an average of 2 hours a day on it.
Faced with this growing use of the social network, various experts have highlighted the risks run by the youngest.
Among the known and identified effects, we find:
- Autistic disorders, especially in very young children (from 12 months);
- Hyperaddictiveness;
- A form of stupefaction due to the incessant video stream;
- suicide attempts;
- Suicidal thoughts;
- Greater use of cosmetic surgery.
Digital spaces that can be both a cure and a poison
Faced with this assessment, Laurence Rossignol, senator SER, wished to alert the commission to the negative consequences of the use of social networks among the youngest, especially among adolescent girls, “suggesting a correlation between the use of filters on social networks, the increase in the suicide rate and the use of cosmetic surgery“.
But for Milan Hung, also interviewed as a clinical psychologist, the correlation between these indicators is not a “scientific demonstration“.
Social networks can allow, it is true, to “spot a pain“; but this must be put into perspective”with family, friendship, love and mental health contextsof the adolescent concerned.
An opinion shared by Angélique Gozlan, doctor in psychopathology and clinical psychologist.
There is, in fact, “an underlying family issue, an already pre-existing internal issue that will unfold in the sphere of social networks“.
Raising awareness and educating young people about digital
But according to the report, there is no point in condemning the networks. These spaces of freedom allow “teenagers to build themselves outside the parental gaze“. In fact, the rapporteurs of the commission highlight the need to educate the youngest in digital technology instead of condemning these spaces.
Awareness, which could be carried out “from the age of three“, says Ms. Gozlan.