Monsignor Stephen Rossetti, a 71-year-old Catholic priest, started a TikTok channel last month when it came to his attention that the popular social media platform was introducing kids to something other than harmless videos of lip-syncing, viral dance challenges, and funny things caught on home security cameras.
As the chief exorcist of the Archdiocese of Washington, Rossetti was concerned when he learned that videos with hashtags like “WitchTok” and “Folk Catholicism” had become popular on the TikTok app.
If you scroll through the platform using those hashtags, you’ll come across a variety of eyebrow-raising videos claiming to share magic spells and manifestations associated with witchcraft. Most TikTok users across the world are between the ages of 18 and 24, according to data compiled by Statista.