An interesting shift has been happening lately: kids and teens are ignoring social media after discovering something new: TikTok. The application has become very popular among young people and parental concern is quite natural. Don’t worry, we’ll tell you everything.
What is TikTok
On TikTok, you can videotape yourself while dancing, singing, or playing, and then edit the resulting content with various effects and publish it on the Internet. The resulting mini-movies are between 15 and 300 seconds long.
Users of the application put likes, leave comments and share the best videos with friends, for example, by sending it to social networks such as Facebook.
TikTok is one of the most popular apps in the world with over 100 million users making over 10 million videos every day.
Previously, it was known as Musical.ly, but the Chinese company changed the name and improved it a bit, making it even more popular.
TikTok from what age?
Officially, there is a limit of up to 13 years, but children under the age of 10 are also registered, indicating a different date of birth.
What are the risks?
A child can have hours of fun with an app, but the fun needs to be fun and safe, so privacy needs to be taken seriously.
The company has previously paid a $5.7 million FTC fine for collecting names, email addresses and other personal information of minors without parental consent.
In addition, Musical.ly, which is now part of TikTok, was announced two years ago as not being secure, meaning that posted videos could easily be intercepted.
The default profile is public
TikTok users’ profile is set to “public” by default, so anyone can view the video. In addition, with this setting, all personal data, including location, is open.
TikTok users’ profile is set to “public” by default, so anyone can view the video. In addition, with this setting, all personal data, including location, is open.
Also, TikTok from a public profile can use the video for its own purposes – place it as an advertisement on other social networks, such as Yandex Zen and provide it to anyone outside the application.
Messages from strangers
If your child’s profile is public, then strangers can write to him, which can be dangerous. Establishing a trusting relationship eventually leads to the exchange of personal information – where he lives, what school he goes to and what his parents do.
To prevent this from happening, first of all, it is necessary to explain to the child that correspondence with strangers is dangerous and you should not tell anyone details about your family or friends. The second way to take action is to change the app’s privacy settings.
How to change TikTok privacy settings:
1. Click the profile icon in the lower right corner of the application
2. Click the ellipsis symbol to set up
3. Click the heading Privacy
4. Turn on “Private Account”
5. Set up security settings – who can comment, view videos, send messages.
By making all these changes, you provide better protection for your child in the application. The country and location where your child is located will no longer appear on the video and profile. Moreover, a message will appear that only friends and subscribers can view and share the video.
The child will receive likes and messages only from those who follow them.
Always remember about the time allotted for communication and creating masterpieces on your smartphone, excessive enthusiasm can result in insomnia and a decrease in school performance.