The Chicago Tribune on how TikTok and its harmful effect on kids lives on:

TikTok went dark in the United States for a little while, but is now back online here thanks to a stay of execution from President Donald Trump. The newly inaugurated president seems to be working toward some sort of a deal to help TikTok comply with federal rules prohibiting foreign agents from owning and controlling social media platforms in the U.S.

Trump ordered the bipartisan 2024 ban signed by President Joe Biden and reinforced by the U.S. Supreme Court not be enforced for 75 days after its Jan. 19 effective date so he can “determine the appropriate course of action.”

Yes, we need to determine the appropriate course of action, but not just as it relates to legal compliance.

Remember: Just seven months ago the former U.S. surgeon general called for a warning label on social media platforms due to their role in accelerating the mental health crisis among young people.

That surgeon general, Vivek H. Murthy, flagged an alarming statistic: Teenagers are spending an average of 4.8 hours a day on social media.

But it’s made even worse once you learn that a team of researchers found that when adolescents spend more than three hours a day on social media, they’re at a heightened risk for mental health issues. Half of teens say social media makes them feel worse about their bodies, and a third say it affects their grades, according to a 2022 survey from Boston Children’s Hospital.

Back to TikTok. There’s a lot not to like about what’s going on with the platform.

First off, TikTok’s parent company, ByteDance, is compelled to “assist or cooperate” with the Chinese government‘s “intelligence work” and to ensure it has “the power to access and control private data.” The platform is being used to surveil journalists and others, and report back to Beijing. Each of these transgressions merits deeper discussion. The Supreme Court justices in their 9-0 ruling to uphold the TikTok ban said they weren’t focused on the content on TikTok.

But we should be. TikTok and the like are poisoning American kids.

A team of Wall Street Journal reporters launched TikTok accounts registered as 13-year-old users for a 2023 investigation and were fed a “highly personalized, never-ending stream of content curated by the algorithm,” including extreme videos on the Israel-Palestine conflict.

All of this content is leading to depression and anxiety among our youth, a phenomenon that led 14 attorneys general to sue TikTok over its negative effects on childhood mental health.

When it comes to TikTok and any other social media platform, we agree that grown-ups need to limit our kids’ access to social media platforms.

While politicians and tech giants sort out platform ownership and national security concerns, we call on all government leaders to protect our kids.