Are the TikTok kids alright?

Hi, Olivia here in New York. TikTok’s CEO is about to testify. But first…Today’s must-reads:• VCs pitched startups on the new Silicon Valley [View in browser]( [Bloomberg]( Hi, Olivia here in New York. TikTok’s CEO is about to testify. But first… Today’s must-reads: • VCs pitched startups on [the new Silicon Valley Bank]( • Singapore’s Kredivo had [the biggest fundraise]( since SVB’s fall • Amazon [faces more UK strikes]( Young minds It’s Judgment Day for TikTok. At 10 a.m., TikTok Chief Executive Officer Shou Chew will face his first US Congressional testimony. The stakes couldn’t get higher for Chew — or the 150 million Americans who use TikTok. Just last week, a sale-or-ban decree was handed down by the Biden White House, which fears TikTok [could be used as a secret disinformation tool]( by Beijing. It’s likely much of the focus of [Thursday’s full hearing]( will be on TikTok’s China roots and the app’s data security practices. But the committee has another topic on its radar: Are the kids alright? Those born into the smartphone and social media generation have been unwittingly thrust into one massive social experiment, with no control group. We do not know the long-term impacts of growing up on social media or how their algorithms may influence, or manipulate, young developing minds. What’s apparent — and what a number of lawsuits filed against big tech have recently pointed out — is that the explosive popularity of social media tracks closely with a rising youth mental health crisis. The majority of American teens use TikTok on a daily basis, with some reporting they are on the app almost constantly. The company’s remarkable — and mysterious — algorithm is optimized for engagement, not safety, and its main objective is to keep users glued to the screen for as long as possible. Because the prefrontal cortex (the part of the brain responsible for impulse control and judgment) is not fully developed until age 25 and because adolescents are hypersensitive to peer feedback, psychologists say they are more susceptible to these addictive algorithmic designs. In the past few years, we’ve seen a steady drumbeat of concern around how social media impacts mental health, especially that of kids. In 2021, US Surgeon General Vivek Murthy issued a rare and urgent [public advisory]( on declining youth mental health, where he pointed out that kids are growing up in an online era where they are constantly reminded they “aren’t good-looking enough, thin enough, popular enough, rich enough, frankly, just not enough.” And, according to new [data]( from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, one in three teenagers have seriously considered killing themselves, a figure that has more than doubled in the past decade. It’s easy to find correlation between social media and declining mental health, but causation is much harder to prove, especially as tech companies are notoriously secretive with their data and algorithm designs. In academic circles, this is a fraught area of study with conflicting results. That’s likely because, for the majority of teens, scrolling through an endless stream of short videos is a welcome escape, a place where they can find a sense of belonging and community. But for others, it can take a much darker turn. And we don’t know why. I’ve read through dozens of lawsuits filed against TikTok in the US in the past year, which contain allegations ranging from social media addiction to insomnia, eating disorders, depression and suicide. I spoke to one teenage girl who said she searched for sports content on TikTok when she was 12 and wound up being shown videos about excessive exercise and advice on counting calories to make your legs skinnier. She was hospitalized with anorexia the day after her 13th birthday, with a resting heart rate so low her life was in danger. On Thursday, in between a barrage of questions about TikTok’s relationship with Beijing, Chew will likely be asked about the role the app is playing in the youth mental health crisis. The answer deserves more time than what will fit in a TikTok video. —[Olivia Carville](mailto:ocarville1@bloomberg.net) The big story Snap slumped nearly 70% in the past year, and the social media company behind the once wildly popular [Snapchat can’t count on a TikTok ban]( to help it recover those losses. Get fully charged A former Goldman Sachs trader is opening a new firm that [uses blockchain technology to sell government and corporate bonds]( to investors online. Job hiring platform Indeed is joining other tech companies in cutting 2,200 roles as its CEO [predicts job openings will cool]( to what they were before the pandemic. Logitech [also cut jobs](. Watch: Adobe CEO Shantanu Narayen [talks about Figma, AI and the economy]( in a TV interview on Bloomberg Technology. Tencent shares rose after it eked out a sliver of growth, reversing two quarters of shrinking sales, and gave [a positive outlook](. Jumia, an Africa-focused e-commerce giant, will sell French-made tools and DIY products in Ivory Coast and Senegal, where many live in rural areas and [much of the local economy is driven by agriculture](. More from Bloomberg Listen: [Foundering: The John McAfee Story]( is a new six-part podcast series retracing the life, the myths and the self-destruction of a Silicon Valley icon. Subscribe for free on [Apple](, [Spotify]( or wherever you get your podcasts. Get Bloomberg Tech weeklies in your inbox: - [Cyber Bulletin]( for coverage of the shadow world of hackers and cyber-espionage - [Game On]( for reporting on the video game business - [Power On]( for Apple scoops, consumer tech news and more - [Screentime]( for a front-row seat to the collision of Hollywood and Silicon Valley - [Soundbite]( for reporting on podcasting, the music industry and audio trends Follow Us Like getting this newsletter? 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