Their Parents May Not Know It, But Most 11- And 12-Year-Olds Are On TikTok
The video-sharing app TikTok briefly went dark on Jan. 19, days after a Supreme Court ruling upholding a law requiring that it be sold by its Chinese owner, ByteDance. But in one of his first official acts as president, Donald Trump revived the app, signing an executive order instructing the Justice Department to delay implementation of the law for 75 days, effectively implementing a stay while his administration attempts to broker a deal to keep the app up and running for its 170 million U.S.-based users.
Thousands, perhaps millions, of those users are children. While TikTok has set the minimum age for an account to 13, circumventing this rule is as easy as entering a false date of birth. TikTok regularly suspends the accounts of users who appear to be under 13 years of age, but this doesn’t prevent them from making new accounts with different user names and birthdates.
Since most kids have access to some kind of a screen every day, the result is that a lot of kids are spending time on TikTok, which is known for captivating viewers of all ages for hours with its algorithm and endless scrolling.
A study published this month in the journal Academic Pediatrics analyzed data collected between 2019 and 2021 from over 10,000 young people in the U.S. ages 11-15. A majority (69.5%) reported having at least one social media account. TikTok was the most popular platform, with 68.2% of respondents under age 13 having an account. The other apps most popular with 11- and 12-year-olds were YouTube (62.9%), Instagram (57.3%) and Snapchat (55.2%).
Dr. Jason Nagata, professor of pediatrics at the University of California, San Francisco and one of the study’s authors, told HuffPost, “this highlights a significant issue with the current age verification processes, which are largely ineffective.”
Nagata and other experts are sounding the alarm about the potential consequences of using social media at a tender age, but there are things parents can do to reduce the risk of their children being harmed by dangerous content.
How does TikTok draw kids in?
“Social media platforms leverage powerful algorithms to deliver content that is highly engaging, visual and interactive,” Nagata said, describing TikTok’s ‘For You’ feed, which the company’s website describes as “a core part of the TikTok experience.”
TikTok uses machine learning to predict which videos an individual user is most likely to interact with and then populates their feed with these videos. A “similarity check” replaces videos that look and sound too much like one another to ensure just enough variety so that users don’t get bored. The system also filters videos by region. TikTok says its algorithm won’t recommend videos from users under 16 for the For You feed, but it’s hard to imagine that they are able to effectively implement this restriction given the large number of children who enter false birthdays to gain access to the app.
If you’ve ever used the app, you understand how effectively this system functions. Adults often talk about how they end up spending more time on the app than they intend to or even use the word “addiction” to describe their relationship with it.
“Likes, comments and notifications trigger dopamine release in the brain, creating a sense of reward that encourages repeated engagement,” Nagata said.
What are the potential harms of kids’ social media use?
Nagata’s research is part of a growing body of evidence documenting a correlation between young people’s social media use and mental health issues, including depression, anxiety, ADHD and eating disorders. It is linked to adolescents’ use of alcohol, cannabis and nicotine and has been shown to disrupt sleep.
“Nearly two-thirds of teens report having an electronic device in their bedroom, and 17% report being woken up by notifications in the past week,” Nagata said, adding that sleep impacts both mental and physical health.
“Getting inadequate sleep may increase the risk of developing mental health symptoms and risk factors for cardiometabolic disease,” he said.
An alarming number of young people also report addictive behaviors involving social media, their phones and video games. “We found that preteens were susceptible to elements of social media addiction, including the inability to stop despite trying, withdrawal, tolerance, conflict and relapse,” Nagata said.
In their research, Nagata and his team found that a quarter of preteens report that they spend a lot of time thinking about social media. The same number say they use social media to forget about their problems. Seventeen percent said they have tried using social media apps less but can’t, and 11% said their use of social media apps has had a negative impact on their schoolwork.
“When social media use adversely affects a child’s quality of life, relationships and daily functioning,” parents should consider the possibility of addiction, Nagata said.
He described possible ways these symptoms could manifest. “Children may be unable to control or reduce their social media use. They may lose interest in other activities. Social media use preoccupies their thoughts,” he said.
While it’s possible that children susceptible to addiction are more drawn to social media, some evidence points to a causative relationship.
“Our research has shown that the more time spent on social media is associated with greater symptoms of addiction one year later,” Nagata said.
When HuffPost reached out to TikTok for comment, a representative noted that the data collection (2019-2021) coincided with the pandemic and that the app was new to the U.S. then. It’s possible that there are fewer underage users on TikTok in 2025. Given the app’s meteoric rise, however, it’s also possible that there are more.
TikTok also pointed out that the challenge of verifying users’ ages is an industry-wide issue; kids are using fake birthdays for other platforms too.
Is TikTok doing anything to protect kids?
TikTok’s website claims that its mission includes “providing a safe experience for a broad audience, and in particular teens.” When teens create accounts using their real birthdays, it triggers certain safety features. The default setting is private, and a daily time limit is set at 60 minutes. When a parent has an account and family pairing is enabled, these settings can be changed. Teens under 16 do not have access to direct messaging, and their content won’t be recommended to the For You feed (where strangers would see it).
Users who enter birthdays indicating they are under 13 are directed to “TikTok for Younger Users,” a “curated view-only account” for children under 13 that basically blocks the social functions of the app. Kids can watch videos but not post anything of their own or leave comments. They can’t create a profile, amass followers or message other users, either.
Interestingly, Douyin, the Chinese-language version of TikTok (owned by the same company) offers a “youth mode” setting that is automatically enacted for those under 14 and differs from the restrictions on TikTok for underage users. It limits users to 40 minutes per day and blocks use between 10 p.m. and 6 a.m. The BBC reports that those under 18 must obtain legal consent from a parent or guardian in order to set up an account. In addition, Douyin feeds users curated “novel and interesting science experiments, exhibitions in museums and art galleries, beautiful scenery from all over the country, historical knowledge explanations, etc.” It’s unclear how many children are watching these wholesome videos, however. The New York Times reported last year that Douyin is the No. 1 app for users over age 50.
What more can parents do?
So long as TikTok is around and doesn’t change its safety features, U.S. parents are left with a couple of options when it comes to protecting their kids. We can block them from using certain devices or apps, or we can guide them in how to do so more safely.
Devorah Heitner, author of “Growing Up In Public: Coming Of Age In A Digital World,” advocates for better safety and privacy protections for all users, teens and adults alike.
“What I would argue is that for all users of any age, there needs to be some regulation and more limits on the ways that these apps use our data to then spit out other content — some of which may be very harmful or misleading or manipulative,” Heitner told HuffPost. We want to protect kids from certain content, but most adults would also appreciate some protection from targeted advertising.
She does not foresee companies like TikTok voluntarily making big changes to their algorithms any time soon, however.
“These apps are doing what they do because it’s working for them. It’s growing the time that people spend on the app. It’s growing their user base, and the financial incentives seem to be key, and keeping kids or any user safe in terms of mental health or time on device does not seem to be the priority,” Heitner said.
In addition to delaying the age at which kids have access to a tablet or phone, parents can use parental controls to block certain apps or content. But Heitner doesn’t suggest that parents put too much stock in these, as determined kids may eventually find a workaround. You might be able to prevent your child from downloading the TikTok app onto their phone, for example, but they could shift to accessing it on an internet browser app or another device like a laptop.
What parents want to avoid, Heitner said, is a scenario in which kids are using social media in secret.
“Kids will be secretive if they are told to stop doing something that they’re enjoying and that their friends are doing,” she said. “If they’re secretive with their adults, or if they’re going to even more unregulated spaces ... then that makes them even more vulnerable, because then they’re not in conversation with the adults about the content they’re seeing, the interactions they’re having.”
Instead, she recommends an approach of “mentoring over monitoring,” where parents emphasize communicating with their kids about how to navigate social media. This makes more sense than age limits, which can seem arbitrary, Heitner said. It also gives adults an opportunity to work with kids and guide their use.
The American Academy of Pediatrics recommends that families create a family media plan in which you outline norms that all family members will follow. Common ones include no phones at the dinner table, to encourage connection, or in bedrooms, to encourage sleep.
Heitner recommends that parents show their kids respect during these discussions.
“We don’t want to talk to our kids like they’re dupes, like, ‘You’ll be duped by this app because you’re so young and naive.’ That’s just not a successful strategy.”
Instead, she suggested something like, “Hey, this app, it is somewhat unregulated. They have shown themselves to not necessarily be always so protective of their users, and they use an algorithm that even adults find very sticky and hard to walk away from.”
Kids are more likely to respect restrictions when they understand the reasons behind them, and the more time you spend talking to them about what they’re up to on social media, the more likely you are to have a chance to prevent harm.
Nagata, who is father to a 3-year-old and a newborn, said, “Social media will likely look very different in the next decade, and my hope is that when my children are teenagers, we will know more about how to better use social media to foster joy and benefits and minimize health risks.”
