New York — TikTok is known primarily as a launch pad for funny memes, dance routines and lip-syncing videos. The company embraces that reputation with a tagline, “the last sunny corner on the internet”. But there’s a dark side to TikTok that engulfs some of the app’s youngest users.
Beneath the surface, TikTok also hosts videos promoting anorexia, bullying, suicide and sexual exploitation of minors. Personalised recommendations, driven by algorithms owned by the parent company Bytedance, often make it harder for parents to track what their children are seeing and for regulators to monitor what children are being exposed to on the app...
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