13+ per terms
A short-video feed driven by a powerful recommendation algorithm that can amplify dangerous 'challenges' and mature content.
Videos may encourage children to choke themselves or hold their breath until they pass out. These behaviours can cause brain injury or death, and there is no safe way to try them. Ask whether your child has seen related content.
Relevant to:TikTokYouTubeInstagramDangerous Challenge
Some videos encourage teens to take unsafe amounts of diphenhydramine to hallucinate. An overdose can cause seizures, abnormal heart rhythms, or death. Explain the risk plainly, and store medicines where they are not simply available.
Relevant to:TikTokYouTubeDangerous Challenge
An overview of the recurring class of dares that algorithmic feeds surface to children, with dedicated advisories on choking and pass-out dares, unsafe diphenhydramine use, and the heated squishy-toy trend.
Relevant to:TikTokYouTubeInstagramDangerous Challenge
Videos have encouraged children to microwave gel-filled squishy toys, best known as NeeDoh, to change how they squish. The sealed toy bursts and the scalding gel sticks to skin.
Relevant to:ToysTikTokYouTubeDangerous Challenge
Heavy social media use is associated with worse mental health in adolescents — most strongly in girls — during a developmental window when sleep and self-image are already under pressure.
Relevant to:InstagramTikTokSnapchatMental Health
Feeds are engineered to maximize time on screen using the same variable-reward mechanics as slot machines, against a self-control system that is not finished developing.
Relevant to:TikTokYouTubeInstagramSnapchatCompulsive Design
Early, heavy screen exposure is linked to effects on sleep and attention, and to the displacement of the unstructured play and in-person time young children need.
Relevant to:YouTubeTikTokInstagramDevelopmental Harm
