Misleading, to say the least
A new study has raised warnings about the contraception advice being handed out in Tik Tok videos which are being viewed billions of times.
Most Australian TikTok users fall within the 18-24 demographic, a group that is typically sexually active and seeking fertility control options. So, it’s no surprise that videos on contraception are popular and influential, especially true when influencers use all the techniques and algorithms to attract viewers. And because of how TikTok works, it finds your interests and keeps feeding them to you, which means you’re just getting more and more of the same contraceptive advice. All of this would be incredibly powerful if the information was reliable and based on evidence.
There have been concerns about reproductive health influencers for a while. Many use medical sounding titles which might be permissible in their home countries, but not in Australia. They often don’t seem to have any qualifications and the information, while very slickly delivered, is often wrong or misleading. It’s not clear what drives the influencers – some may be trying to undermine faith in mainstream medicine.
Three researchers at La Trobe University in Melbourne wanted to see what was available on TikTok to a hypothetical young Australian woman aged 18. They used five hashtags with large volumes of views
- #birthcontrol: 4.4 billion views
- #contraception: 810.2 million views
- #thepill: 295.6 million views
- #naturalbirthcontrol: 96.8 million views
- #cycletracking: 73.1 million views
They then selected the top 20 Tik Tok videos for each hashtag – so 100 in all.
Most of the creators were based in the US, UK or Australia. Almost all were female and aged between 18 and 40. The videos received a mammoth 4.85 billion views. Most of the creators were general uploaders with no declared qualifications. Some called themselves hormonal health coaches or health educators. Only 10% of the creators described themselves as medical professionals.
The study found that 53% of the uploaders rejected hormonal contraception and they were all either general uploaders, health educators or hormonal health coaches. Many communicated distrust of health professionals and based their views on personal opinion. Many used negative stories – which are known to be clickbait, and gain more audience numbers. Fertility tracking was a popular topic related to natural birth control which can work, but needs a lot of care and attention and can be highly unreliable. Safe-sex barrier methods such as condoms were rarely mentioned.
The conclusions were that a lot of young women are using social media for their contraceptive advice, much of which is unreliable or wrong. Interestingly, the researchers found that when doctors made TikTok videos, the information quality and accuracy was also poor, although these doctors were more likely to have strong followings, presumably because young women trusted their qualifications.
Bottom line: none of this substitute good advice from your GP. Maybe there’s an opportunity for those GPs with specific interest and experience, to become involved as content creators and ensure shared advice is medically sound and evidence-based.
