Why TikTok SHOULD be banned in SA

As parents, we continually warn our children against the dangers of social media and the online environment.

To us, we see risk, we see predators and we see the harm that can be done. Our children don’t see quite the same thing. They see socialising, communication and even a career path in some cases – to them, the great digital space is where they can be free. They can be themselves, they can be someone else if they choose and they can express themselves.

Let’s face it –it’s pretty hard to separate a teenager from a phone or social media these days. But what about when it goes horribly wrong?

The reality in South Africa, is that when it does go wrong and your children fall prey to the seedy and unsavoury side of the internet – you’re 100% on your own.

Now as a cybercrime investigator, I desperately want to tell you that this isn’t true. That we have laws and law enforcement that are there to assist you – but it’s just not true.

Imagine for a moment, that your child wakes up one morning and a score of fake profiles have been created in their name – and using their photos. Photos stolen from their existing social media accounts. The fake accounts begin to amass friends and followers and before you know it – those fake profiles are posting racially insensitive videos. They’re using racial slurs, hating on everyone and everything in the most vile fashion – and it’s all being blamed on your child.

Well as you can imagine, it won’t take long before those insensitive and fake profiles and spread like wildfire through your childs school and social circle. Your child of course denies that these profiles are theirs – but the kids just don’t believe it.

Incensed by the racially charged posts, parents bombard your child’s school with complaints immediately. Strangers send hate fuelled messages to your childs cellphone at lighting speed.

So what do you do as a parent? Sure you can take their phone and take them off of social media immediately. You can take down their photos and profiles to protect them – but it’s too late isn’t it? The hate is already out there and no matter how many times you report the posts and profiles – the mighty social media giants just don’t respond. The posts and profiles remain intact.

Imagine the damage this does to a teenager, struggling to find their own identity, their place in the world- and now, picture being one hundred percent helpless to do anything about it at all. You can shout, you can scream but you’re raging against the machine and nobody’s listening.

THIS is the reality for hundreds of parents around the country every day as their children fall pretty to Cyber Bullies. Sure, you can report it to Law Enforcement, but that’s rather pointless.

TikTok for example is headquartered safely in China where they dance to their own tune and just ignore requests for data, notifications to remove content and well – they just don’t care.

The South African Police Service struggles on the best of days to keep up with the onslaught of physical crime.

In the world of Cyber Crime they’re not just behind the fight – they’ve completely lost the fight. The processes and procedures to acquire digital evidence are lethargic, ineffective and just don’t work. All of this is of course assuming that you can find a Police Station where someone has the slightest idea what you’re talking about and understands the direct impact that Cyber Bullying has on a person.

Even if you do happen to hit gold and find a Police Officer that understands and wants to help, the chances of him having the necessary understanding of technical intricacies around VPNs’ IP addresses and user-location data are pretty nominal – and then he still has to explain those to a prosecutor just to get a warrant.

The sad reality is that nothing will be done – you’re on your own. Left to help your child right their digital life and reputation, handle the onslaught of hate messages from strangers that track their contact details down incensed by what they’ve seen online.

All the while, the perpetrators sit smugly back and hide behind disposable e-mail addresses, non-rica’d phone numbers and laugh at a paralysed system. Yes, the system is paralysed. SAPS has taken too long to identify the importance of Cyber Crime – let alone respond to it.

Their infantile approach to dealing with the digital world has left the entire country and its youth vulnerable and exposed. Daily we read of Cyber Bullying, invoice interception scams, 419 scams, Ponzi schemes involving insane amounts of money being lost – and the tragic reality is that our police services are completely ineffectual – the war on cybercrime in South Africa has been fought and lost without management even knowing it ever happened.

Parents, take heed – for your own sake as well as that of your children – make them cyber-safety aware. Take them OFF of TikTok which in my opinion is one of the worst managed, enforced and controlled social media strands ever conceived – yes, it’s worse than MixIt!

If your children are to use social media in any form, as much as we decry and hate the censorship of Facebook, I have to admit that it is actually necessary to protect users in countries where law enforcement just cannot do the job.