What are the psychological effects TikTok has on minors? That was the question that a French parliamentary inquiry committee, launched in March, tried to answer. After a public consultation that prompted 30,000 responses, MPs heard testimonies from more than 150 stakeholders and experts. As the hearings concluded on Tuesday, June 24, the committee’s rapporteur Laure Miller (from Macron’s centrist Renaissance party) and chair Arthur Delaporte (Socialist) shared their assessment of the committee’s findings, ahead of the report’s release, scheduled for September.
The committee aimed to examine the psychological effects TikTok has on minors. What conclusions have you drawn from this series of hearings?
Laure Miller: Despite some nuances, there are undeniable psychological effects on the youngest users, which must lead us to apply a form of precautionary principle. We cannot, on the pretext that certain young people are able to take some distance from the app, sacrifice a portion of our children who may suffer extremely harmful impacts from TikTok.
Arthur Delaporte: The main impacts stem from the effectiveness of its algorithm, loss of sleep, and how the app acts as a catalyst for distress.
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