TikTok to examine content on self-harm, Oireachtas committee told

An RTÉ 'Prime Time' investigation revealed that within 20 minutes of browsing the site, a reporter was finding videos directly referencing self-harm and suicidal thoughts.

Senior management at social media site TikTok has vowed to examine content linked to suicide and self-harm “as a matter of urgency”.

An RTÉ Prime Time investigation has revealed that within 20 minutes of browsing the site, a reporter was finding videos directly referencing self-harm and suicidal thoughts.

By the end of an hour of scrolling, TikTok’s recommendation system was showing a stream of videos almost exclusively related to depression, self-harm, and suicidal thoughts to the users it believed to be 13-years-old.

The head of public policy at TikTok, Susan Moss, said the company reviews quickly-growing content “sometimes twice” to ensure it adheres to its standards.

She said there is “an inherent obligation” on social media companies to ensure that people using them do not get shown the same type of content over and over.

While she had not seen the RTÉ programme, she had assured the regulator, Coimisiún na Meán, that the allegations were being examined.

Addressing the Oireachtas Children’s Committee yesterday, Ms Moss said: “I want to assure every member of this committee, and indeed as we assured Coimisiún na Meán this morning, that we’re looking into it as a matter of urgency.

One negative experience is one too many, and so certainly we’re going back, we’re looking at it and we’re taking action.

However, Ms Moss said the methods used in the programme were not representative of the real world use of TikTok.

“I just do want to stress that we are committed to continuously looking at this area and how we can improve, how we can strengthen our processes, particularly for younger users,” she said.

Separately, representatives of Meta — which owns Facebook — said standard age verification processes should be implemented across Europe.

“We believe that a significant step forward can be taken at a European level, to ensure that parents only need to verify the age of their child once and that their child will then be placed into an age-appropriate experience on every single app.

“The most efficient and effective way in which this would work would be at the operating system, or app store, level.

“This would not remove responsibility from every app to have processes in place to manage age effectively.

“The question of age verification is complicated, however, we believe that the time has come to move forward with an effective solution that addresses the concerns of all stakeholders — including parents.”

Fine Gael senator Mary Seery Kearney told the committee that being on X, particularly as a politician, was a “vile” experience.

Whenever she has reported content, she claimed that the response is that it never “violates community standards”.

She added that the decision by Meta to lower the age limit on WhatsApp from 16 to 13 was an “unforgivable retrograde step”.