Chinese social networking site TikTok has launched new features to help users fight eating disorders, mental health problems, and suicidal thoughts. The innovations appeared against the background of The Wall Street Journal's material on the dangers of Instagram for the mental health of adolescents. In Russia, TikTok was previously recognized as the main distributor of suicide content.
You can get support from TikTok through an in-app search. For example, a user who is struggling with an eating disorder simply needs to enter the hashtags #suicide or #anorexia, the company said. The algorithm will also work if you ask for help with a specific psychological problem. In the Bullying Prevention section, users, for example, can get information and support on bullying issues.
“TikTok cares about the well-being and health of its community, so users looking for words or phrases related to dangerous content, for example, see dedicated support resources and a helpline,” the Russian TikTok page reported.
The developers emphasized that TikTok is against content that glorifies suicide and self-harm. The administration of the service will in every possible way support users who have decided to share their experience and offer them assistance.
TikTok has also developed a guide with expert advice for caregivers and educators. The app promises to add shortcuts to viral content so that users can decide in advance whether to watch the video or not. In turn, the Russian TikTok announced a week of mental health. From 13 to 19 September, the platform will host a series of informative live broadcasts dedicated to caring for your psychological well-being.
The app has new functionality after the publication of The Wall Street Journal on the dangers of Instagram (owned by Facebook) for teenage girls, CNBC noted. Following the release, US lawmakers lashed out at Facebook for the impact of social media on adolescent mental health and the company's failure to address these issues.
Earlier, “Secret” said that TikTok was recognized in Russia as the leader in the rate and scale of distribution of suicidal content in 2021. More than 1,700 videos dedicated to suicide and death groups were found on the short video service. The audience of these videos exceeds 580,000 people.
In the summer of 2021, TikTok began automatically deleting violent and nude videos. Then the administration of the social network took up the restriction of users who were under 13 years old. In the first quarter of 2021 alone, TikTok deleted more than 7 million of these accounts. In early 2021, the social network made teenagers' accounts private.
Photo: Pixabay, Pixabay License
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