The Framing of Dangerous TikTok Challenges as Deviant Behavior: A Study on Social Control, Digital Identity, and Policy Responses to Challenges Causing Physical Harm Among Adults Over 18 in the UK

Abstract

This dissertation explores how adults conceptualise physically harmful TikTok challenges as deviant acts, positioning the analysis within debates on social control, digital identity, and responsibility. Drawing on nine semi-structured interviews, the study develops three themes. First, participants characterised TikTok as fast-paced and addictive, with algorithmic design accelerating trends and normalising risky behaviours. Second, motivations for participation were linked to peer pressure, visibility, and the pursuit of attention, though respondents also voiced scepticism and disengagement. Third, while harmful challenges were dismissed as “stupid” or “dangerous,” they were simultaneously framed within media narratives shaped by moral panic. The findings highlight the tension between individual agency and structural manipulation. Acts of micro-resistance such as skipping, mocking, or unfollowing content, were reactive rather than transformative, constrained by TikTok’s design and affordances. The analysis shows harmful challenges are not spontaneous acts of recklessness but relational practices co-produced by users, platforms, and cultural discourse. This study also identifies a gap in policy and scholarship, which overwhelmingly frames risk as a youth issue, neglecting adults who remain subject to algorithmic pressures. In doing so, it contributes to criminological understandings of digital deviance, demonstrating how harmful challenges emerge within contested spaces of governance, visibility, and identity performance.