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> What troubles those who track child exploitation is that TikTok’s algorithm is designed to learn what type of content users like, then feed them a string of i

> What troubles those who track child exploitation is that TikTok’s algorithm is designed to learn what type of content users like, then feed them a string of it. That keeps youngsters glued to the site and makes it easier for pedophiles to seek them out. I don't get that paragraph. It's like saying playgrounds are designed to attract kids, making it easier for pedophiles to know where kids are and seek them out. Or ice cream vans, or toy stores, or malls. Or even schools. Removing fun things from playgrounds will result in fewer incidents, but is that what we want.

arka2147483647 4y ago
A playground is easily observable by a parent. Mobile apps usually arent.
jxf 4y ago
Children go with their parents to those locations and/or have trusted adult supervision. TikTok has and encourages neither.
Sakos 4y ago
I used TikTok extensively for a month. I thought it was disturbing how often it would show me videos from people who'd turn out to be under-age girls and I'd only find out by checking the comments. I definitely see how TikTok facilitates the risk of sexual exploitation of minors. Trying to treat TikTok's algorithm as anything like a playground is just ridiculous.
- luckylion 4y ago
  I'm not sure I understand, you mean someone would randomly stumble upon minors and then accidentally exploit them sexually? Or that TikTok makes it easy to find them because it'll just present minors to you after you've swiped right on some meme dance once? I'd imagine that predators don't really need a recommendation engine to stumble upon them since they're actively looking for them. Are you suggesting they're becoming predators by accident because Tiktok showed them videos of minors?
  - Sakos 4y ago
    Once TikTok realizes you like young girls, it'll show you more young girls. If it realizes young girls is all you care about, it will literally show you nothing else. That's a pedophile's dream right there. Chances are higher than we'd like that some of these girls are vulnerable and might mistakenly build contact with a predator which might lead to sexual exploitation.
    - luckylion 4y ago
      Right, but pedophiles don't need TikTok to find children they can prey on. They'll join games, they'll join streams, they'll find them on Twitter or Instagram, on Facebook or whatever else there is. TikTok may be a more convenient platform because it's better at understanding that someone wants to see preteen girls or whatever, but it certainly isn't turning people into pedophiles or creates a situation that isn't also on any other platform. I don't think there is much anyone can do. The platforms will kill any proposal of online identification and age-gating because they'll lose money. The parents have often given up fighting their kids over media usage. And everyone else has no influence over the children, the platforms, or the predators.
    - GaryNumanVevo 4y ago
      So in this situation, you were or weren't seeking out young girls in the feed? Because it sounds like TikTok was just picking up on _your_ preferences here.
      - Sakos 4y ago
        Nah. My main interests on TikTok were pretty women and funny videos. Which is why it was disturbing to me that it would keep trying to show me girls that were way too young.
- belltaco 4y ago
  >how often it would show me videos from people who'd turn out to be under-age girls and I'd only find out by checking the comments So you have no idea that you're looking at kids and not adults without seeing the comments?
  - ASalazarMX 4y ago
    Consider that even in the first world, the age of majority varies from 16 to 21.
    - tzs 4y ago
      You are probably thinking age of consent [1]. Age of majority is 18+ pretty much everywhere except Iran, Indonesia, Yemen, Cambodia, Cuba, Myanmar, Scotland, Vietnam, North Korea, and Timor-Leste [2]. [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Age_of_consent https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Age_of_consent [2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Age_of_majority https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Age_of_majority
      - ASalazarMX 4y ago
        I was talking of age of majority, and according to your second link, which was my own source, it's 16 in UK and Scotland, which are considered first-world. IANAL, but I'd expect the age of majority to overrule the age of consent, since they're considered an adult from then on, in their countries. Unless these young influencers are doing sexual acts with their viewers, age of consent is irrelevant here.
  - pwinnski 4y ago
    The dilemma of people believing the ideal age is 18 (or under, but under is illegal, so...), and so wanting to watch women who are as close to being underage as possible without getting them in trouble.
- GaryNumanVevo 4y ago
  > I thought it was disturbing how often it would show me videos from people who'd turn out to be under-age girls This is disturbing to say the least, especially because TikTok's algorithm is highly responsive to your individual preferences. I tried it out for a bit because my kid was on it, and I literally only got forklift, train and truck videos after awhile.
  - Sakos 4y ago
    That's the point though. TikTok is extremely responsive and exploratory. You got forklift, train and truck videos. Full disclosure, I primarily got pretty women who were clearly of age being sexually suggestive or dancing, because, well, I'm a sucker for pretty women. Which is why it was jarring whenever I'd get videos of people who were clearly young girls and I'd check their profile or the comments for their age. With the above post, I recognize how TikTok was probing my interests and I see how that algorithm is far more problematic than people here are willing to admit.
    - GaryNumanVevo 4y ago
      I think this is more a reflection of yourself, rather than TikTok
hgsgm 4y ago
The problem is the exact opposite of what the article claims. The problem is that TikTok learns that a user likes jailbait and feeds that user an endless stream of it.
remarkEon 4y ago
Well, I don’t get the reflexive need here to defend predatory algorithms, which is what happens any time TikTok (or Facebook for that matter) comes up. This is in no way like a “playground”, which exists in the physical world. A swing set on the playground isn’t anything remotely close to a system that’s designed to hijack your dopamine response.
ambicapter 4y ago
A playground that actively learns your child's wants and desires in order to keep them hooked to the playground until your child would rather stay up all night being at the playground instead of going to bed is some sort of messed-up stephen king horror story, not a playground.

arka2147483647 4y ago

A playground is easily observable by a parent. Mobile apps usually arent.

jxf 4y ago

Children go with their parents to those locations and/or have trusted adult supervision. TikTok has and encourages neither.

Sakos 4y ago

I used TikTok extensively for a month. I thought it was disturbing how often it would show me videos from people who'd turn out to be under-age girls and I'd only find out by checking the comments. I definitely see how TikTok facilitates the risk of sexual exploitation of minors. Trying to treat TikTok's algorithm as anything like a playground is just ridiculous.

luckylion 4y ago
I'm not sure I understand, you mean someone would randomly stumble upon minors and then accidentally exploit them sexually? Or that TikTok makes it easy to find them because it'll just present minors to you after you've swiped right on some meme dance once? I'd imagine that predators don't really need a recommendation engine to stumble upon them since they're actively looking for them. Are you suggesting they're becoming predators by accident because Tiktok showed them videos of minors?
- Sakos 4y ago
  Once TikTok realizes you like young girls, it'll show you more young girls. If it realizes young girls is all you care about, it will literally show you nothing else. That's a pedophile's dream right there. Chances are higher than we'd like that some of these girls are vulnerable and might mistakenly build contact with a predator which might lead to sexual exploitation.
  - luckylion 4y ago
    Right, but pedophiles don't need TikTok to find children they can prey on. They'll join games, they'll join streams, they'll find them on Twitter or Instagram, on Facebook or whatever else there is. TikTok may be a more convenient platform because it's better at understanding that someone wants to see preteen girls or whatever, but it certainly isn't turning people into pedophiles or creates a situation that isn't also on any other platform. I don't think there is much anyone can do. The platforms will kill any proposal of online identification and age-gating because they'll lose money. The parents have often given up fighting their kids over media usage. And everyone else has no influence over the children, the platforms, or the predators.
  - GaryNumanVevo 4y ago
    So in this situation, you were or weren't seeking out young girls in the feed? Because it sounds like TikTok was just picking up on _your_ preferences here.
    - Sakos 4y ago
      Nah. My main interests on TikTok were pretty women and funny videos. Which is why it was disturbing to me that it would keep trying to show me girls that were way too young.
belltaco 4y ago
>how often it would show me videos from people who'd turn out to be under-age girls and I'd only find out by checking the comments So you have no idea that you're looking at kids and not adults without seeing the comments?
- ASalazarMX 4y ago
  Consider that even in the first world, the age of majority varies from 16 to 21.
  - tzs 4y ago
    You are probably thinking age of consent [1]. Age of majority is 18+ pretty much everywhere except Iran, Indonesia, Yemen, Cambodia, Cuba, Myanmar, Scotland, Vietnam, North Korea, and Timor-Leste [2]. [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Age_of_consent https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Age_of_consent [2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Age_of_majority https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Age_of_majority
    - ASalazarMX 4y ago
      I was talking of age of majority, and according to your second link, which was my own source, it's 16 in UK and Scotland, which are considered first-world. IANAL, but I'd expect the age of majority to overrule the age of consent, since they're considered an adult from then on, in their countries. Unless these young influencers are doing sexual acts with their viewers, age of consent is irrelevant here.
- pwinnski 4y ago
  The dilemma of people believing the ideal age is 18 (or under, but under is illegal, so...), and so wanting to watch women who are as close to being underage as possible without getting them in trouble.
GaryNumanVevo 4y ago
> I thought it was disturbing how often it would show me videos from people who'd turn out to be under-age girls This is disturbing to say the least, especially because TikTok's algorithm is highly responsive to your individual preferences. I tried it out for a bit because my kid was on it, and I literally only got forklift, train and truck videos after awhile.
- Sakos 4y ago
  That's the point though. TikTok is extremely responsive and exploratory. You got forklift, train and truck videos. Full disclosure, I primarily got pretty women who were clearly of age being sexually suggestive or dancing, because, well, I'm a sucker for pretty women. Which is why it was jarring whenever I'd get videos of people who were clearly young girls and I'd check their profile or the comments for their age. With the above post, I recognize how TikTok was probing my interests and I see how that algorithm is far more problematic than people here are willing to admit.
  - GaryNumanVevo 4y ago
    I think this is more a reflection of yourself, rather than TikTok

hgsgm 4y ago

The problem is the exact opposite of what the article claims. The problem is that TikTok learns that a user likes jailbait and feeds that user an endless stream of it.

remarkEon 4y ago

Well, I don’t get the reflexive need here to defend predatory algorithms, which is what happens any time TikTok (or Facebook for that matter) comes up. This is in no way like a “playground”, which exists in the physical world. A swing set on the playground isn’t anything remotely close to a system that’s designed to hijack your dopamine response.

ambicapter 4y ago

A playground that actively learns your child's wants and desires in order to keep them hooked to the playground until your child would rather stay up all night being at the playground instead of going to bed is some sort of messed-up stephen king horror story, not a playground.