Are Your Children Safe on TikTok?

My seven-year-old son came home from a friend’s house the other day and said, “Hey daddy- I saw something really scary on my friend's iPad today.” With a lifted eyebrow of suspicion and caution I instantly gave my son my undivided attention. My son went on to share that while he and his buddy watched TikTok videos on a hi-jacked iPad, they stumbled upon some inappropriate and honestly disturbing content. Thankfully, my son was very open with me, and we were able to have a positive although serious conversation.?

As a career security professional, I have been able to gain a liberal amount of knowledge on the impact of the use of emerging technology. Now, as a husband and father I try to keep a keen eye on how this technology impacts my own family. It is extremely hard to keep up with the latest cell phone apps, but TikTok remains one of the most popular. TikTok, which is owned by the Chinese company ByteDance, is a social media platform that allows people to edit videos, lip-sync, and create videos to post and share. Most users are between 14 and 24, but anyone can sign up. The videos on it are usually under a minute long, but users scroll for hours watching them. Most of the content on TikTok is relatively harmless. However, because of the large and diverse user base, your child will most likely come across people getting hurt, swearing, bragging, and dancing provocatively. Furthermore, many users also report seeing nudity on TikTok- something no parent wants their child to be exposed to. In addition to inappropriate pornography, TikTok also has hashtags that have been linked to dangerous behaviors like bullying, self-harm and dangerous trends or challenges. Having said all of this, every social network has its downside and dangers.

As a cautious parent, I urge you to pay attention to the dangers of TikTok (and other apps) as soon as possible to mitigate the risk of your children being severely affected by inappropriate content. Here are a few things to be aware of…

• Privacy Concerns: Privacy concerns are in no way unique to TikTok. Most social media apps collect data on users, so it’s important to know what you agree to. TikTok doesn’t just collect data on videos you share but also on content you created but didn’t share. The data TikTok collects can include phone numbers, email addresses, locations, and even your contact list. This may not seem like a big deal, but parents need to realize if hackers can get access to personal data, they can attempt phishing scams and stalking. More and more students are building “relationships” with people over the internet. It’s challenging to discern whether these are good people or people intending to harm. The bigger the digital footprint a person has, the less privacy he or she has.?
• Inappropriate Content: As I mentioned earlier, parents need to be cognizant of the large amount of inappropriate content on TikTok. Suggestive material and pornography are just two examples, but you can imagine the wide range of videos users can create that you may not want your kids viewing. Mind you, this danger is not unique to TikTok. Thus any social media app your kids use has the possibility of exposing them to inappropriate content. You can set filters for offensive comments and keywords for these apps, but be aware that they’re not always accurate and won’t catch everything.
• Dangerous Influences: As if inappropriate content weren’t bad enough, TikTok is notorious for “challenges.” I briefly mentioned this earlier on, but to expand on this, these challenges become trends that kids participate in to attempt to gain viewers and likes. Many of us have heard of the Tide Pod challenge, which involved kids trying to eat a Tide Pod. But there are other dangerous trends. Examples include the hot water challenge, which has kids throw hot, boiling water on each other. Then there’s the blackout challenge where users choke themselves until they black out and lose consciousness. TikTok sometimes removes these videos, but not before the trends have gone viral and damage is already done. These are just a few of the dangers of social media apps like TikTok. As a parent, I have made it a habit to have regular conversations with my boys and be open with them about dangers. In my humble opinion, handing your kids full social media access today without any guidance is a recipe for disaster.

Lets engage...?

Questions for thought and conversation. Please post in the comments.?

1. What do you do to protect your kids from social media??

2. What do you think is considered too much screen time for children??

3. What age do you think it is appropriate to give a child a cell-phone?