TikTok creators promoting steroids are reaching millions of teenagers: 'Just tell your parents they're vitamins'
A report by the Center for Countering Digital Hate (CCDH) published in September found that, while young girls and women are being targeted with unhealthy ads for dieting and weight loss on TikTok, there’s a growing and understudied audience also being fed toxic health information: young boys and men.
In several blurred-out, unidentifiable TikTok examples that the CCDH screenshotted, creators captioned videos of them working out with messages like, “Teenagers lied about their age just to fight in WW2 but you are too scared to take S4RMs” and “Just tell your parents they’re vitamins.”
According to the U.S. News and World Report in May, it’s usually young men, rather than high-level athletes, who are most likely to buy steroid-like drugs (SLDs) and selective androgen receptor modulators (SARMs) to alter their appearance. The CCDH argues that young men are often exposed to misleading and positive depictions of the drugs on TikTok, and some bodybuilding creators are making it easy to purchase them through their profiles — as simple as clicking a link in their bio.
The CCDH called the situation “a crisis” as it found multiple instances of “toxic ideas of masculinity, strength and misogyny” being promoted in viral bodybuilding TikToks. According to the report, steroids and SLDs have been featured in videos that have collectively accumulated over 587 million views — in the U.S. alone — and the majority of those viewers are under the age of 24.
The report’s overall allegations were that there were numerous influencers promoting websites that either sold steroids and SLDs directly or were part of affiliate programs that allowed the influencers to also benefit from sales of steroids and SLDs.
TikTok’s community guidelines prohibit the promotion and sale of drugs as well as the facilitation of “regulated, prohibited or high-risk goods and services.” However, the CCDH claimed that “TikTok is likely to be instrumental to the promotion of SLDs” because of the platform’s “stark failure to govern their own platform and enforce their rules,” which can potentially result in serious health issues or death for some young and impressionable users.
What are SLDs and SARMs?
In May 2022, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) cautioned against bodybuilding products because it had received hundreds of reports that some of them illegally contained steroids or steroid-like substances. “Steroids” is a generic term for hormones, while SLDs specifically replicate testosterone.
Some of the videos promoting these products use specific language, such as “performance-enhancing drugs” or “performance- and image-enhancing drugs” that don’t mention whether they include steroids or SLDs.
The CCDH’s report looked at three classes of steroids and SLDs that it found were commonly promoted on TikTok: anabolic-androgenic steroids (AASs), peptides and SARMs. All three can result in significant health risks, especially AASs and SARMs.
While some influencers advertise SARMs as “legal steroids,” they’re not. SARMs are supposed to boost performance and increase muscles without some of the negative effects of steroids — although SARMs come with their own negative side effects. Peptides and SARMs are illegal to sell, as they are not approved for consumption; AASs are legal with a prescription.
“SARMs are selective androgen receptor modulators, which are synthetic chemicals that mimic the effects of natural male sex hormones,” Dr. Ramit Singh Sambya told In The Know by Yahoo. “Steroids have more widespread effects on various tissues and organs, while SARMs have more targeted effects on muscles and bones.”
All forms of SARMs are prohibited in and out of competitions for athletes, no matter what level they are at, and are not legal ingredients for any type of dietary or bodybuilding supplement, the USDA reports.
“[SARMs] are not approved for medical or supplemental use in the U.S. and they have been linked to serious health problems,” Dr. Sambya said. “Taking SARMs as a young man can be especially risky.”
How are creators promoting SLDs and SARMs on TikTok?
Researchers at the CCDH, which obtained analytics from TikTok, found that U.S. users between the ages of 18 and 24 had viewed TikToks that promoted SLDs up to 420 million times in the last three years. CCDH noted that TikTok does not provide information on users under the age of 18, “suggesting there could be an even younger audience for these videos.”
TikTok did not respond to In The Know’s request for comment. However, TikTok spokesperson Ben Rathe told Fortune that the CCDH’s final numbers do not distinguish between videos that are “harmful” versus ones that are “positive,” such as ones that feature creators talking about recovery or side effects. Rathe also added that all videos that advertise SLDs and SARMs will be taken down when detected by TikTok.
It’s not a matter of creators hashtagging the specific drug; researchers also identified at least 30 different hashtags that led to videos advertising SLDs in some way. Workarounds for SARM- and SLD-related hashtags include intentionally misspellings (e.g., #S4RMS) and using words and phrases associated with bodybuilding. One hashtag, for example, is #somethinginthewhey, with an associated video of people pulling bottles of SLDs out of whey protein powder containers — the suggestion being, the CCDH alleges, that SLDs are the true way to build muscle. Some of these videos have millions of views.
“Gotta respect the transparency,” one commenter wrote in response to one of the TikToks.
“gimme some, sharing is caring bro,” another person commented under a different video.
Why is this dangerous?
A 2017 study published in the Journal of the American Medical Association found that out of the 44 SARM-labeled products researchers bought online, only half were SARMs. An estimated 39% of the products contained “other unapproved drugs.” Additionally, 26 out of the 44 products contained compounds that “differed substantially” from what was listed on the label.
“Content found under these hashtags typically saw TikTok posters encouraging one another to abuse SLDs by downplaying the health risks and promoting unrealistic body standards,” the CCDH report reads. “In some cases, posters were aware of the potential side effects, including death, but claimed they would ‘die happy’ for SLDs if it meant achieving their body ideals.”
One creator the CCDH focused on goes by @teach_me_roids, who has over 40,000 followers and seemingly targets teenagers with his content. In his bio, there is a 10% discount code for Swiss Chems, which describes itself as “a trusted supplier of high-quality research chemicals.” He has multiple videos that allege taking supplements to block certain hormones during puberty will help young men grow taller.
Dr. Praveen Guntipalli, a board-certified physician based in Dallas, Texas, has spent 15 years working in the internal medicine field. He told In The Know by Yahoo that he’s treated a number of patients who have misused performance-enhancing drugs.
“For young teens, taking SARMs can be harmful. Their bodies are still growing and developing, and SARMs can interfere with this natural process,” he said. “[Taking SARMs] can lead to problems like not growing to their full height, experiencing mood changes, having fertility issues in the future and putting strain on their liver and heart.”
If you or someone you know is struggling with an eating disorder or disordered eating habits, contact the National Eating Disorder Association (NEDA) at 1-800-931-2237. You can also connect with a Crisis Text Line counselor at no charge by texting the word “HOME” to 741741. Visit the NEDA website to learn more about the possible warning signs of eating disorders and disordered eating.
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The post Is TikTok’s diet content promoting steroids and SARMs to young male users? appeared first on In The Know.
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