{"id":34075,"date":"2025-06-13T16:36:00","date_gmt":"2025-06-13T16:36:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/preaching\/sermon-illustrations\/tiktok-is-harming-children-at-industrial-scale\/"},"modified":"2025-06-13T16:36:00","modified_gmt":"2025-06-13T16:36:00","slug":"tiktok-is-harming-children-at-industrial-scale","status":"publish","type":"sermon-illustrations","link":"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/preaching\/sermon-illustrations\/tiktok-is-harming-children-at-industrial-scale\/","title":{"rendered":"TikTok Is Harming Children at an Industrial Scale"},"content":{"rendered":"
Internal documents from Tik Tok executives and employees reveal that the social media platform is driven to capture the attention of users. Here were some of their own internal statements:<\/p>\n\n
\n\t
An internal presentation on the 2021 strategy for TikTok describes the company as being in an “arms race for attention.”<\/li>\n\n\t
“It’s better to have young people as an early adopter, especially the teenagers in the U.S. Why? They’ve got a lot of time.”<\/li>\n\n\t
“Teenagers in the U.S. are a golden audience.<\/li>\n\n\t
“The product in itself has baked into it compulsive use.”<\/li>\n\n\t
“The reason kids watch TikTok is because the algorithm is really good… But I think we need to be cognizant of what it might mean for other opportunities. And when I say other opportunities, I literally mean sleep, and eating, and moving around the room, and looking at somebody in the eyes.”<\/li>\n\n\t
As an internal guide on push notifications explained, a key goal of TikTok’s push notifications is to “Activate & Engage users with the right content at the right time, to encourage users to open the App more and stay longer.”<\/li>\n\n\t
In a chat message a TikTok employee confirmed that the company’s “goal is not to reduce the time spent” on the TikTok app, but rather to ultimately “contribute to DAU [daily active users] and retention” of users.<\/li>\n\n<\/ul>","protected":false},"author":30,"featured_media":0,"template":"","tax_ctp_audience":[],"tax_ctp_authors":[],"tax_ctp_categories":[165],"tax_ctp_format":[171],"tax_ctp_illustration_types":[409,411],"tax_ctp_multimedia":[],"tax_ctp_point_editor":[446],"tax_publications":[140],"tax_ctp_tags":[3380,3453,3655,3808,3869,4112,4207,4245,4272,4286,4444,4662,4904,5012,5013,5038,5064,5130,5190,5234,5256,5302,5313],"tax_ctp_topics":[400],"class_list":["post-34075","sermon-illustrations","type-sermon-illustrations","status-publish","hentry","tax_publications-ct-pastors","tax_ctp_tags-addiction","tax_ctp_tags-attention","tax_ctp_tags-computers","tax_ctp_tags-distractions","tax_ctp_tags-entertainment","tax_ctp_tags-habits","tax_ctp_tags-idols","tax_ctp_tags-influence","tax_ctp_tags-internet","tax_ctp_tags-isolation","tax_ctp_tags-media","tax_ctp_tags-pop-culture","tax_ctp_tags-seduction","tax_ctp_tags-social-media","tax_ctp_tags-social-trends","tax_ctp_tags-spiritual-bondage","tax_ctp_tags-spiritual-warfare","tax_ctp_tags-teens","tax_ctp_tags-trends","tax_ctp_tags-video","tax_ctp_tags-vulnerability","tax_ctp_tags-worldliness","tax_ctp_tags-young-people"],"acf":{"scripture_references":[{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null}]},"yoast_head":"\nTikTok Is Harming Children at an Industrial Scale - CT Pastors<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/preaching\/sermon-illustrations\/tiktok-is-harming-children-at-industrial-scale\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"TikTok Is Harming Children at an Industrial Scale - CT Pastors\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Internal documents from Tik Tok executives and employees reveal that the social media platform is driven to capture the attention of users. 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