'I was immediately given all this eating disorder content. He's embedded himself in the app's eating disorder communities. Swinburne University's Dr Suku Sukunesan advises TikTok on how to make the app safer. If you or anyone you know needs help with an eating disorder: 'I'd like to think that I wouldn't have struggled with an eating disorder if I hadn't downloaded TikTok … the algorithm is seeing vulnerable people and then playing on that vulnerability,' Lauren says. Researchers say there are many factors that contribute to eating disorders, but social media has increasingly become a focus of concern. Lauren says the flood of fitness and food TikToks turned into an obsession ( Four Corners) The TikTok algorithm pushed Lauren toward the viral trend of meticulously tracking how many calories you eat in a day, something researchers warn promotes eating disorders.

It was just like this complete focus on that fitness and healthy lifestyle goal.' 'I was no longer seeing funny dance videos or anything. 'I had never really had that many negative thoughts about my body until I had someone saying, 'I hated this body. 'As I her, a lot of the same pages kept on showing up,' Lauren says. When Lauren Hemmings downloaded TikTok, the algorithm showed her a video by a popular fitness influencer, with a similar body shape to hers, who'd been tracking her food intake and losing significant amounts of weight. That's what's catapulted TikTok's Chinese parent company ByteDance to a value of more than $250 billion. The more it keeps you scrolling, the more ads you see. 'It is very hard to break that cycle, and it's by design that you never really get to the end of the content.' 'What really sets TikTok apart … is just how accurate and how up-to-the-minute this For You page recommender system seems to be,' QUT researcher Dr Bondy Kaye says. The more you 'like' videos, follow an account, or watch a TikTok video until it ends, the more the algorithm learns about your interests. As soon as you sign up, TikTok starts collecting data about your location, gender and age and, more contentiously, your facial data.

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