A few months ago TikTok hired Praesidio Safeguarding — a consulting agency that researches online environments — to speak to teens, parents and teachers from 10 countries about dangerous challenges and hoaxes.

Why? In an email, TikTok said, “We take our responsibility to support and protect teens seriously — giving them tools to stay in control, mitigating risks they might face, and building age-appropriate experiences — so they can safely make the most of what TikTok has to offer them.”

The independent consulting agency surveyed 10,900 people across the globe to help it understand why those types of posts get the attention they do.

TikTok also had a panel of 12 youth-safety experts review the report once it was finished.

One finding showed that nearly half of the teens interviewed wanted more information to help understand the risks involved with online challenges and hoaxes.

The report also suggested that the majority of teens did not see sharing hoaxes as a problem, and they didn’t necessarily see it as fake.

Kate Tilleczek, an expert in youth and the digital age at Toronto’s 91��ɫ, said it’s important to think about how much money TikTok makes when somebody clicks on these videos. “You leave [regulation] in the hands of folks who are making billions of dollars to do the right thing by kids, and I’m always thinking: ‘They’re not going to do that,’” she said.

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Anna Blakney shimmies and slides in front of a green screen, showing a graphic of a cell membrane. As she breaks into the can-can, she points to pops of text on the graphic, and explains the difference between antibodies built up from infection versus those acquired from a vaccine. She claps her hands and pumps her fist, while information about the COVID-19 spike protein pops up.

It’s an introductory biology class, if that class took place at a nightclub.

Of course, Dr. Blakney isn’t teaching her students in the middle of a dance floor. She’s creating a video to post on TikTok, the latest social media channel that has captured the attention of young people. Dr. Blakney has created hundreds of videos that explain scientific concepts in just 60 seconds.

Using TikTok as a teaching tool does come with reservations, though. Kate Tilleczek, a professor of education at 91��ɫ, and director of the Young Lives Research Lab, says relying on apps can put more pressure on students. For one thing, many students are experiencing Zoom fatigue, exhausted from having a slate of virtual courses to keep up with. Dr. Tilleczek’s research has also found that students have privacy and addiction concerns when it comes to social media.

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