An analysis of court documents by Kentucky Public Radio revealed the social media company TikTok knew users can become addicted to the platform in under 35 minutes.
Kentucky is one of more than a dozen states suing TikTok, arguing the company knowingly harmed children and violated consumer protection laws.
According to a 2022 Pew survey, children spend on average more than 91 minutes a day on TikTok.
Christia Spears Brown, professor of developmental psychology at the University of Kentucky, said rates of depression have spiked among teens.
"We see it in affluent kids, we see it in low-income kids. We see it in rural communities. We see it in urban communities," Spears Brown outlined. "We really see this as a ubiquitous, universal kind of space."
The lawsuit seeks a stop to TikTok's practices and monetary compensation to states. According to the latest CDC data, 40% of the nation's youth say they feel persistent sadness and hopelessness, and the percentage rises to 53% among girls. The nation's suicide rate among youth people jumped 62% between 2007 through 2021. TikTok argued it has implemented policies to protect children and said the lawsuits are misleading.
The American Psychological Association maintains using social media is "not inherently beneficial or harmful to young people." But Spears Brown advised parents to proactively monitor and control their child's social media use.
"One of the biggest pieces of advice for parents is to really limit the amount of time that kids are on social media," Spears Brown emphasized.
TikTok has also come under scrutiny for allowing its livestreaming feature to facilitate child sexual abuse and exploitation. Lawsuit documents say thousands of minors have livestreamed videos of themselves where users can pay to send the live-streamer money in the form of a digital currency the company calls TikTok "gifts."
