TikTok the ‘worst culprit’ for young people’s poor mental health

Every extra hour that teenagers spend on social media is linked with worse mental health, according to new research that names TikTok as the platform most closely associated with anxiety and depression.

The Oxford University BrainWaves study of more than 15,000 schoolchildren and students aged 16 to 19 is the first research to seek to distinguish the effects of different social media platforms – a key part of the debate about government plans to ban social media for under-16s.

Findings shared with The Observer show that spending long hours online was closely associated with higher anxiety and depression, with more than a fifth of teenagers admitting to using social media for at least eight hours a day. TikTok was the platform that schoolchildren spent by far the most time on.

Some platforms were linked to poor mental health however much the teenagers used them. For girls, the strongest association was with Wizz, an app some critics call the “teen Tinder”. For boys, it was Pinterest, which is increasingly used by teenagers to create a mood board of aspirational looks, although both apps were used by comparatively few children.

The study is continuing and will follow children at 74 schools in an effort to understand why growing numbers of teenagers are experiencing mental health disorders, rising from one in 10 in 2017 to a quarter of all young people by 2022.

But Snapchat use had an inverse link to poor mental health, which led the researchers from Oxford University, Swansea University and the University of Washington to conclude that, when platforms are used for genuine socialising rather than aimless scrolling, they may have positive effects, and even be associated with higher resilience.

“Why you engage with social media is critically important,” said John Gallacher, professor of cognitive health at Oxford University. “If you’re a member of a minority group, this might be the best way to relate to people who you identify with.

“In terms of time spent on the platform, TikTok is the worst culprit. There’s no question about that. That’s not to say it doesn’t have other harms. But from what we’ve measured, it definitely has a big harm [effect] on anxiety and depression due to long duration abuse. So it’s a really serious public health issue.”

In a pre-print of their latest study, which has not yet been peer-reviewed, the researchers found that girls used social media for 4.1 hours a day, on average, compared with 3.8 hours for boys. Only a handful never used social media. The most popular platforms, used by more than half the teenagers, were Instagram, Snapchat, TikTok, WhatsApp and YouTube.

After TikTok, the platforms where girls spent longest online were Omegle (the original app enabling people to talk to strangers has been replaced by copycats), Discord, Facebook, X, Tumblr, YouTube, Instagram and Pinterest. Boys spent longer on TikTok, Wizz, Discord, X, YouTube, Pinterest, Reddit and Instagram.

Sarah Bauermeister, associate professor of psychiatry at Oxford, said that different motivations for using social media may explain the different effects of its use. Those using social media to avoid or escape from real life, or because they are bored, have a fear of missing out or just scroll aimlessly, may be vulnerable to poor mental health.

Those using platforms socially or creatively may even have higher resilience, although the study did not specifically address issues of bullying.

“Snapchat, by the nature of the platform, is social recreational,” Bauermeister said.

Gallacher said: “If you design a platform, we could call it TikTok, which has low demand and high reward built into it, it’s addictive.

“But if you design a platform which is intellectually interesting, socially constructive, emotionally and value-affirming, then it’s attractive in a different way.”

BrainWaves also works with schools to help translate research into better outcomes for children. Julian Turner, the charity’s director of education, said the research showed the government’s plan for an outright social media ban would have “costs as well as benefits”.

“A ban might have some benefit in terms of reduced hours spent,” he said. Research into Australia’s ban on social media for under-16s found there was some reduction, but in 16 to 19-year-olds, there had been a slight increase in use.

“It may be that one is just kicking it down the road,” Turner said. “There are other reasons why a ban is problematic. Not all social media activity is negative. And there is a danger of creating some perverse incentives for young people to circumvent the ban.”

Young Australians have got round the ban by using virtual private networks, which, he said, “takes them out of a regulated environment into an unregulated environment”.

He added: “But more importantly, you’re removing an incentive for the tech companies to actually change the products to make the products safer. You’re not actually dealing with the core problems here, things like algorithms that make certain apps so compulsive.”

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