The Verge⁠56%

TikTok’s protection of minors should not be opt-in, warns EU ⁠64%

By Jess Weatherbed⁠65%

7/24/2026, 11:40:03 AM

BS Summary: This article contains 17 faulty reasoning types, including Negativity Bias, Confirmation Bias, and Appeal to Emotion, with Appeal to Authority as the most egregious example at 29.5% saturation with 79 hits. Analysis detected 530 faulty-reasoning hits from 268 analyzed words, generating a BS Score of 58.5% and a BS Rank of ⁠64% (7,975 of 21,887 articles). This article is worse (more manipulative) than 63.60% of the article peer group.

TikTok has attracted the ire of the European Union over its protection of children who use the video sharing platform. 
The European Commission announced preliminary findings today under the Digital Services Act (DSA) that offer specific issues to address. 
The Commission suggests that TikTok should adjust the default settings of minors’ “public” accounts so the content they post is only visible to TikTok users the teen has chosen to share it with, and that such content shouldn’t be recommended to other users in the For You feed. 
Even accounts set to private can be easily discovered through the “following” lists of other users, and their profile photos can be seen by anyone. 
If TikTok fails to address the concerns, it could face a DSA non-compliance decision that imposes fines of up to 6 percent of the company’s global annual revenue. 
“Minors deserve a safe experience from the moment they go online. 
The Digital Services Act requires platforms to build protections for minors into the design of their services, and holds them to account when they fail to do so,” EU tech chief Henna Virkkunen said in the announcement. 
“A high level of protection should not be an opt-in; it should be the default. 
This is our responsibility for current and future generations of European children.” 
The preliminary findings follow UK communications regulator Ofcom launching a similar child safety investigation into TikTok last week, with updates expected in October. 
The EU says its separate probe to evaluate the addictive “rabbit hole effect” of TikTok’s recommender systems is still ongoing. 
Article reasoning-pattern comparisonThis article: 17.9%Jess Weatherbed: 4.0%The Verge: 3.6%Confirmation Bias17.9%This article: 7.1%Jess Weatherbed: 4.2%The Verge: 1.3%Anchoring Bias7.1%This article: 7.5%Jess Weatherbed: 4.0%The Verge: 3.8%Availability Heuristic7.5%This article: 0.0%Jess Weatherbed: 0.8%The Verge: 1.3%Representativeness Heuristic0.0%This article: 0.0%Jess Weatherbed: 0.4%The Verge: 0.7%Hindsight Bias0.0%This article: 0.0%Jess Weatherbed: 1.2%The Verge: 1.7%Overconfidence Bias0.0%This article: 8.2%Jess Weatherbed: 8.2%The Verge: 6.2%Framing Effect8.2%This article: 10.4%Jess Weatherbed: 2.3%The Verge: 0.9%Loss Aversion10.4%This article: 0.0%Jess Weatherbed: 0.4%The Verge: 0.5%Status Quo Bias0.0%This article: 0.0%Jess Weatherbed: 0.0%The Verge: 0.4%Sunk Cost Effect0.0%This article: 0.0%Jess Weatherbed: 5.1%The Verge: 4.0%Optimism Bias0.0%This article: 10.4%Jess Weatherbed: 3.2%The Verge: 2.4%Pessimism Bias10.4%This article: 24.3%Jess Weatherbed: 10.4%The Verge: 9.7%Negativity Bias24.3%This article: 0.0%Jess Weatherbed: 0.7%The Verge: 1.5%Self-Serving Bias0.0%This article: 0.0%Jess Weatherbed: 1.4%The Verge: 0.8%Fundamental Attribution Error0.0%This article: 0.0%Jess Weatherbed: 0.0%The Verge: 0.2%Actor-Observer Bias0.0%This article: 0.0%Jess Weatherbed: 0.2%The Verge: 0.6%In-Group Bias0.0%This article: 0.0%Jess Weatherbed: 0.6%The Verge: 0.4%Out-Group Homogeneity Bias0.0%This article: 0.0%Jess Weatherbed: 2.4%The Verge: 2.8%Halo Effect0.0%This article: 0.0%Jess Weatherbed: 0.8%The Verge: 0.2%Horn Effect0.0%This article: 0.0%Jess Weatherbed: 0.0%The Verge: 0.0%Dunning-Kruger Effect0.0%This article: 8.6%Jess Weatherbed: 1.8%The Verge: 1.8%Recency Bias8.6%This article: 0.0%Jess Weatherbed: 0.4%The Verge: 0.4%Primacy Effect0.0%This article: 0.0%Jess Weatherbed: 0.0%The Verge: 0.1%Blind-Spot Bias0.0%This article: 0.0%Jess Weatherbed: 0.0%The Verge: 1.1%Ad Hominem0.0%This article: 0.0%Jess Weatherbed: 0.0%The Verge: 0.3%Straw Man0.0%This article: 29.5%Jess Weatherbed: 9.1%The Verge: 4.0%Appeal to Authority29.5%This article: 9.3%Jess Weatherbed: 2.9%The Verge: 1.6%False Dilemma9.3%This article: 10.4%Jess Weatherbed: 0.9%The Verge: 1.2%Slippery Slope10.4%This article: 0.0%Jess Weatherbed: 0.7%The Verge: 0.2%Circular Reasoning0.0%This article: 9.3%Jess Weatherbed: 3.4%The Verge: 6.8%Hasty Generalization9.3%This article: 0.0%Jess Weatherbed: 0.0%The Verge: 0.2%Red Herring0.0%This article: 0.0%Jess Weatherbed: 1.2%The Verge: 0.7%Bandwagon0.0%This article: 17.2%Jess Weatherbed: 2.0%The Verge: 4.2%Appeal to Emotion17.2%This article: 0.0%Jess Weatherbed: 1.7%The Verge: 1.1%Begging the Question0.0%This article: 0.0%Jess Weatherbed: 0.4%The Verge: 2.3%Post Hoc (False Cause)0.0%This article: 0.0%Jess Weatherbed: 0.0%The Verge: 0.2%Tu Quoque0.0%This article: 0.0%Jess Weatherbed: 0.0%The Verge: 0.8%Burden of Proof0.0%This article: 0.0%Jess Weatherbed: 0.0%The Verge: 0.3%Appeal to Nature0.0%This article: 0.0%Jess Weatherbed: 0.0%The Verge: 0.3%Composition/Division0.0%This article: 0.0%Jess Weatherbed: 0.4%The Verge: 3.6%Anecdotal0.0%This article: 0.0%Jess Weatherbed: 0.0%The Verge: 0.1%No True Scotsman0.0%This article: 0.0%Jess Weatherbed: 3.6%The Verge: 2.2%Ambiguity (Equivocation)0.0%This article: 0.0%Jess Weatherbed: 0.0%The Verge: 0.0%Gambler’s Fallacy0.0%This article: 0.0%Jess Weatherbed: 0.0%The Verge: 0.1%Middle Ground0.0%This article: 0.0%Jess Weatherbed: 0.0%The Verge: 0.1%Personal Incredulity0.0%This article: 0.0%Jess Weatherbed: 0.0%The Verge: 0.2%Special Pleading0.0%This article: 0.0%Jess Weatherbed: 0.0%The Verge: 0.2%Genetic Fallacy0.0%This article: 14.2%Jess Weatherbed: 1.5%The Verge: 2.6%Unattributed Quote14.2%This article: 4.1%Jess Weatherbed: 2.8%The Verge: 1.4%Quote-first Misdirection4.1%This article: 3.7%Jess Weatherbed: 5.8%The Verge: 10.8%Biased Writer Voice3.7%This article: 5.6%Jess Weatherbed: 1.4%The Verge: 1.1%Indoctrination5.6%This article: 0.0%Jess Weatherbed: 0.0%The Verge: 1.6%Politically Left Leaning Bias0.0%This article: 0.0%Jess Weatherbed: 0.0%The Verge: 0.1%Politically Right Leaning Bias0.0%This article: 0.0%Jess Weatherbed: 21.3%The Verge: 4.2%Attempt to Sell a Product or S…0.0%

268 words analyzed.

Speakers

4speakers55%attributed speech121writer words
Voice mapSelect a segment to jump to its words
Writer's voice • 10 words • 100.0% coverageWriter's voice • 20 words • 0.0% coverageEuropean Commission • 19 words • 0.0% coverageEuropean Commission • 48 words • 0.0% coverageWriter's voice • 25 words • 0.0% coverageWriter's voice • 28 words • 0.0% coverageWriter's voice • 11 words • 100.0% coverageHenna Virkkunen • 37 words • 0.0% coverageWriter's voice • 15 words • 100.0% coverageWriter's voice • 12 words • 100.0% coverageOfcom • 23 words • 0.0% coverageEuropean Union • 20 words • 0.0% coverage
Selected voice

European Union

100%flagged-word coverage
20 attributed words14% of attributed speech100% writer coverage
0%17.5%35.0%Unattributed Quote-31.4 ptsWriter: 31.4%European Union: 0.0%0.0%Indoctrination-12.4 ptsWriter: 12.4%European Union: 0.0%0.0%Quote-first Misdirection-9.1 ptsWriter: 9.1%European Union: 0.0%0.0%Biased Writer Voice-8.3 ptsWriter: 8.3%European Union: 0.0%0.0%

Attribution is sentence-level. Pattern percentages are calculated only from words assigned to that voice.

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Analysis

Hover over highlighted words in the article to view the associated bias or fallacy analysis.