Context · Social Media
Almost every app your kid uses has stopped waiting to be told what to show and now decides for itself, based on what your kid slowed down on rather than what they followed or searched for.
It learns from hesitation, not from choices
The strongest signal these systems use is not a like or a follow, it is how long somebody stopped. That means a kid who pauses on something upsetting because it shocked them has just asked for more of it, without ever choosing anything, which is why a feed can turn dark in a week for no reason a parent can see.
Why two kids see different apps
There is no single version of TikTok or Instagram or YouTube. Your kid and their friend are looking at two different products with the same logo, so checking the app yourself tells you almost nothing about what your kid actually gets served, and comparing notes with another parent tells you less than it seems to.
What actually changes it
Following and unfollowing barely moves it. What moves it is not stopping, using the not interested option, and clearing out the accounts your kid never chose to see, so the useful thing to do together is spend ten minutes marking things as not interested rather than arguing about the app in general.