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User-Centered Design for Nonsuicidal Self-Injury Information on TikTok: A Study of Users' Motivations and Circumnavigation of Algorithmic Barriers

Published: 14 October 2023 Publication History

Abstract

Social media platforms can foster community and facilitate harm reduction for individuals engaging in nonsuicidal self-injury or hold these individuals at digital margins. Such platforms include TikTok, a short-form video-sharing social media platform that explicitly bans content depicting, promoting, normalizing, or glorifying activities that could lead to self-harm. As such, TikTok may moderate user- generated nonsuicidal self-injury content, leading to marginalization in this digital space. Using a sequential mixed methods approach comprised of a survey, semi-structured interviews, and participatory design activities, this doctoral research aims to understand users’ motivations for adopting TikTok for nonsuicidal self-injury information creation and how TikTok's platform design and content moderation practices can shape users’ information creation practices. Findings from this doctoral research will validate the information practices of online nonsuicidal self-injury communities and contribute recommendations on how social media product design teams can better support the motivations of these communities through user-centered design and content moderation policy changes.

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Cited By

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  • (2025)Exploring Knowledge Sharing and Community of Practice Development: A Stakeholders Analysis of Social Service Organizations in a Midwestern Underserved CommunityCompanion Proceedings of the 2025 ACM International Conference on Supporting Group Work10.1145/3688828.3699645(83-89)Online publication date: 12-Jan-2025
  • (2024)Comunidad digital de las autolesiones de los menores en tiktokDigital Community of Children’s self-injuries in TikTokVISUAL REVIEW. International Visual Culture Review / Revista Internacional de Cultura Visual10.62161/revvisual.v16.529216:4(61-74)Online publication date: 9-Jul-2024

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                    cover image ACM Conferences
                    CSCW '23 Companion: Companion Publication of the 2023 Conference on Computer Supported Cooperative Work and Social Computing
                    October 2023
                    596 pages
                    ISBN:9798400701290
                    DOI:10.1145/3584931
                    Permission to make digital or hard copies of part or all of this work for personal or classroom use is granted without fee provided that copies are not made or distributed for profit or commercial advantage and that copies bear this notice and the full citation on the first page. Copyrights for third-party components of this work must be honored. For all other uses, contact the Owner/Author.

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                    Published: 14 October 2023

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                    Author Tags

                    1. Content Moderation
                    2. Marginalization
                    3. Nonsuicidal self-injury
                    4. TikTok

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                    • (2025)Exploring Knowledge Sharing and Community of Practice Development: A Stakeholders Analysis of Social Service Organizations in a Midwestern Underserved CommunityCompanion Proceedings of the 2025 ACM International Conference on Supporting Group Work10.1145/3688828.3699645(83-89)Online publication date: 12-Jan-2025
                    • (2024)Comunidad digital de las autolesiones de los menores en tiktokDigital Community of Children’s self-injuries in TikTokVISUAL REVIEW. International Visual Culture Review / Revista Internacional de Cultura Visual10.62161/revvisual.v16.529216:4(61-74)Online publication date: 9-Jul-2024

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