WHEN TEENS WANT SEX QUESTIONS ANSWERED...
“CAN I get pregnant from this?”“Am I normal?” Those are common questions teens on TikTok ask Tess Vanderhaeghe, a self-described sexpositive health educator.
One of her videos, which breaks down female anatomy, has received more than 2 million views.
“We talk a lot about sex,” Vanderhaeghe said. “But we don't talk about sexual health.”
Curious young adults struggle to find answers to their questions about changes in their bodies, she said. They might Google a question only to get inundated with information that might – or might not – help.
That's when many turn to TikTok. Like Vanderhaeghe, paediatricians, obstetrician-gynecologists, and sex and relationship therapists are becoming influencers by sharing traditionally taboo-for-teens talk.
“Every generation is curious,” Vanderhaeghe said. “Any teenager going through puberty is curious about sexual health. Gen Z just has access to platforms like TikTok and Instagram and a place to ask those questions in a different way.”
“We live in a sex-saturated society, and we're told not to talk about it,” said Helen Wyatt, a licensed marriage and family therapist in Chicago.
TikTok, for some, is filling that education gap. But like anything else, the platform has its limitations: Anyone can create an account and share content, regardless of whether the information is reliable. TikTok has community guidelines regarding what content will be taken down if the topic discussed is inappropriate
– a category many sex-ed videos fall into. Plus, there are many videos sharing false information.
Vanderhaeghe noticed lower views, likes, shares and overall engagement with two of her more instructional videos, both demonstrating how to use a condom safely and correctly. They were restricted by the app and not sent to the “For You Page”, where videos get the most interaction, even though she was careful not to violate any community guidelines.
TikTok did not respond to a request for comment on this story.
Christine Elgersma, a social media editor at Common Sense Media, a nonprofit that provides guidance to families on engaging with media, said that for parents, there was a “constant anxiety” around digital media. Though TikTok offered “robust parent controls” compared with other platforms, parents worried about how age-appropriate content was. “There are pros and cons to it, depending on the source of the information,” she said. “Kids might get some helpful information, but who's to say that it's going to be entirely accurate or age-appropriate?”
According to a 2020 report from the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists. Danielle Bezalel, the host of the podcast Sex Ed With DB, called the sex-ed TikToks a double-edged sword.
“If it's so accessible to people, then anyone is an expert, right?” she said. “So now there's this problem of young people having to differentiate between valid, credible sources and noncredible sources.”
Seattle paediatrician Tessa Commers said it was uncomfortable but understandable that many young people turn to the internet. That's the reason she started trying to reach the adolescent population, first on Instagram, then on YouTube and ultimately on TikTok. She said it was an underserved population.
“I started out thinking teenagers want to know about acne and crushes, so I started out making videos about that stuff, but the questions people really had were about their bodies, about what's ‘normal',” she said.
About 1.5 million people follow Commers, who goes by “Ask Doctor T” on social media. In her mostliked video, she answered a question asking about genital size. It generated a staggering 1.6 million likes.
“They have this mind-et of, I'd never ask this of someone I know, but I will to this stranger who presents themselves as an authority,” she said. “I've gotten some really open and honest questions, and narratives of changes that bodies are going through, and I'm honoured that they're reaching out to me, but I'm sad. They say, ‘You're the only person I can ask about this'.”
On TikTok, people can choose to be anonymous and invisible listeners and learners. Commers said she hoped research could be conducted to give some validity to the impact of sex ed on the platforms.
In one of her videos, liked by more than 400 000 people, she dispels misconceptions she's seen perpetuated on the app. A user commented: “Wait, that's normal? I've been thinking something's wrong with me.” Twenty-nine thousand people liked it.
Commers replied: “Yes, it IS normal.”