Infinite Scroll: Growing Up on TikTok
A mixed-method study combined children’s phone-use data, TikTok histories showing every video served, screen recordings and interviews to document how UK children experience TikTok and its infinite-scroll design.
Executive summary
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5Rights Foundation and Revealing Reality produced a detailed portrait of children’s everyday lives on TikTok in the United Kingdom. The research links behavioural evidence from devices and the platform with children’s own explanations of how and why they use the service.
The study draws on app-use data from children’s phones, TikTok records showing every video served, screen recordings of scrolling sessions and direct interviews. This combination allows researchers to compare measured use, the content selected by the recommender system and the children’s understanding of their own behaviour.
The report focuses on the effects of TikTok’s continuous, personalised feed on attention, time use and children’s capacity to make informed choices, providing evidence relevant to platform design duties and protections for minors.
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