Studies
Problematic social media use among children remains high
“Social media has become an integral part of everyday life.” photo
© Annette Riedl/dpa
During the pandemic, many boys and girls also became more immersed in the digital world. How big is smartphone addiction now? And what role do TikTok challenges play?
Almost a quarter of 10 to 17 year olds (24.5 percent) use social media such as messenger and video services to a risky extent, as the study by the health insurance company DAK-Gesundheit and the University Hospital Hamburg-Eppendorf (UKE) showed. Extrapolated to 1.3 million children, three times as many as in the pre-Corona year of 2019. In a survey in 2022, the proportion jumped significantly to 22.2 percent and has now continued to increase.
DAK boss: More information about the risks of social media
An estimated 360,000 children and young people are currently using it with addiction criteria, according to study data available to the German Press Agency. The proportion fell to 6.1 percent after 6.7 percent in the 2022 survey – but is almost twice as large as in 2019. DAK boss Andreas Storm said that social media has become an integral part of everyday life. But more information is needed about the appeal and risks of Instagram or TikTok and more prevention campaigns and offers of help for those affected.
For the study, a representative group of children between the ages of 10 and 17, each with one parent from around 1,200 families, was surveyed by the Forsa Institute. The new survey is from September 2023 and is the sixth wave of the survey.
The frequency of use of social media and digital games is examined. “Risky” use is defined as frequent and long-term use with an increased risk of harmful consequences for physical or mental health. Use with loss of control in terms of duration and frequency, increasing prioritization compared to other everyday activities and continuation despite negative consequences are considered “pathological” with addiction criteria. The consequences are then significant disruptions in family and social areas, including training and work.
Warning about harmful TikTok challenges
The State Media Authority of North Rhine-Westphalia warns against Tiktok. More than 60 percent of underage TikTok users in Germany regularly come across content on the platform that makes them uncomfortable. This is the result of a representative study commissioned by the North Rhine-Westphalia Media Authority. To do this, two researchers from the Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich surveyed young people between the ages of ten and 16 who use the online platform TikTok. Most of the young people said that they were videos that made them feel disgusted. However, more than half also reported videos in which others were intentionally hurt. Almost 40 percent said they had encountered extremist ideas.
The researchers also evaluated the content of more than 2,500 TikTok videos. They came to the conclusion that around 30 percent of the challenges on TikTok were potentially harmful and 1 percent were even potentially fatal. However, content that is absolutely inadmissible according to the State Treaty on the Protection of Minors in the Media is a rare exception. In most cases, these were depictions of pain, for example when participants accidentally injured themselves during a challenge. This also includes intentionally painful depictions such as the “Hot Chip Challenge”. Participants were asked to film themselves eating a particularly spicy chip – the manufacturer has since recalled the chips because they were too spicy.
The study also cites this challenge as a negative example of how TikTok has little or no regulation of potentially harmful content and how it can spread so quickly. TikTok, on the other hand, takes a consistent approach to potentially fatal challenges, but the study criticizes the lack of transparency regarding the criteria that TikTok regulates.