In today’s onlife world, social media platforms have become a significant part of our kiddos lives, and TikTok has taken the world by storm. With its short-form videos, TikTok has become immensely popular, especially among the younger generation. As a parent or caregiver, understanding and navigating this platform is crucial to ensuring your child’s online safety and promoting good digital literacy in their use of this app. This article aims to provide parents and caregivers with valuable insights into TikTok, its features, potential risks, and how to ensure a safer and more positive experience for your child.
What is TikTok?
TikTok, formerly known as musically, is a social media platform that allows users to create, share, and discover short videos ranging from 15 seconds to 3 minutes. TikTok is owned by a Chinese company called ByteDance Ltd, which is backed by global institutional investors including Coatue, General Atlantic, KKR, Sequoia Capital, Susquehanna International, and Softbank. Yes, the founder and CEO is a Chinese citizen, but the board of directors for ByteDance is not.
The platform is known for its diverse range of content, from dance challenges and lip-syncing videos to educational content and DIY tutorials (some of which is adult oriented and inappropriate for youth). Users can add music, effects, and filters to their videos, making the content creation process highly interactive and engaging.
TikTok considers the videos you engage with through likes and shares, the accounts you follow, the comments you contribute, and the content you generate. These factors collectively shape your preferences and to what a user will see on their “For You Page” . However, TikTok’s approach goes beyond solely relying on this data to enhance user experience.
TikTok will also introduce diversity in a user’s experience by intermittently presenting a variety of videos. This approach aids in comprehending trends that captivate a broader spectrum of viewers. According to the company’s blog post, “By introducing assorted videos periodically, the system gains a more comprehensive understanding of popular trends across a wider audience. This enables us to furnish other TikTok users with an exceptional experience as well. Our objective is to strike a balance between suggesting content pertinent to your interests while also guiding you towards content and creators that inspire you to explore novel experiences.”
TikTok Features:
Here are the 4 main features of TikTok that parents should be aware of:
1/ For You Page (FYP): This is the default landing page where users are presented with a personalized feed of videos based on their interests and interactions. The TikTok algorithm learns from users’ behavior and preferences to curate content that is likely of interest to the youth.
2/ Following: Users can follow accounts to see their latest posts on their “Following” feed.
3/ Duet and Stitch: These features allow users to interact with other users’ content. “Duet” enables users to create a split-screen video alongside an existing video, while “Stitch” lets users clip and incorporate a segment of someone else’s video into their own.
4/ Privacy Settings: TikTok offers various privacy settings that allow users to control who can see their content and interact with them. Something we will speak to later in this article.
Potential Risks and Safety Measures
While TikTok offers a creative and entertaining space, it’s important to be aware of potential risks on this app as well:
Age-Appropriate Content: TikTok Terms Of Service state that to use their platform a user must be 13yrs of age. Ensure that your child is consuming content that is appropriate for their age. Discuss responsible content creation and discourage sharing personal information or engaging in inappropriate behaviors.
Cyberbullying and Trolling: The comment section of TikTok videos can sometimes be a platform for cyberbullying and negative comments. Teach your child how to handle such situations and encourage them to report or block users engaging in harmful behavior.
Stranger Interaction: TikTok allows direct messaging. Remind your child not to share personal information, such as their location, school, or contact details, with strangers on the platform. Wherever kids are online there will be those who want to target them for things like sexual predation and exploitation.
Screen Time Management: In 2023, the average time spent on TikTok is about 1.5 hours per day. Set guidelines for screen use to ensure that your child’s online engagement doesn’t interfere with their responsibilities and well-being.
In-App Purchases: TikTok coins are a virtual currency used within the TikTok platform. Users can purchase these coins with real money and then use them to buy virtual gifts to send to their favorite content creators as a form of appreciation or support. These virtual gifts can include things like digital stickers, animations, or other virtual items that creators can receive during their live streams or as a way of monetizing their content. When a viewer sends a virtual gift to a content creator, it can have both a monetary value and a symbolic value, showing their admiration and support for the creator’s work. Content creators can then convert these gifts into actual money, which they can withdraw from the platform, although the conversion rates and withdrawal processes may vary depending on the platform’s policies. If you’re an iPhone family, be sure to toggle off “In-app purchases” in Screen Time.
Parental Controls:
Since late 2020, TikTok is the only app, of the top 4 apps most popular with youth (TikTok, Snapchat, Instagram, YouTube), to have parental controls that cannot be turned off by the youth via the TikTok “Family Pairing Function” (1). Also, TikTok is the only app that if a youth joins TikTok, and is under the age of 16, their account is:
· Automatically set to private – which the youth can’t change
· They can’t receive or send direct messages
· They can’t download videos
· They won’t receive messages from people who are not following them
· Tighter restrictions on comments that parents can control
· Access to the “Duet” and “Stitch” function will only be available to those over the age of 16yrs. For those between the ages of 16-17 years, the default setting will be “friends” only
· If the child attempts to opt-out of Family Pairing, a parent will be immediately notified via their Family Pairing
Yes, youth under the age of 16 can lie about their age; however, this is where proper parenting needs to play a role. Remember, the device or app that youth under the age of 16 possesses is not a right to have, they are a privilege to have. If a youth under the age of 16 has a TikTok app on their device that is not set to private by default, then they have lied about their age which is a violation of TikTok’s Terms of Service. In this case, we believe the parent should delete the App from their child’s phone or report it to TikTok who will take it down. Be your child’s best parent and not their best friend when it comes to any app or social media platform, there is a difference.
Open Communication and Monitoring
One of the most effective ways to ensure your child’s safety on TikTok is through open communication. Discuss the platform’s potential benefits and risks with your child. Encourage them to share their experiences and any concerns they may have. Regularly check their account settings and engage in their online presence to better understand their interactions and content.
Some Thoughts From The White Hatter:
Are there less-than-desirable activities that take place on TikTok? Yes – just like any other app out there on the market and being used by youth. Remember, it’s not the app, it’s how a person uses the app that makes it desirable or less-than-desirable. This is why scaffolded digital parenting is so important.
A user must be 13yrs to use TikTok – do we believe TikTok is appropriate for those under the age of 16yrs, NO! However, their new private by default for those under the age of 16 does help to alleviate some of our concerns for younger teens, but only if the teen doesn’t lie about their age.
With over 1 billon videos being viewed on TikTok every day, there is a reasonable risk that your child “may” see inappropriate content or even interact with other users who may not have your child’s best interest in mind.
Do we think a 16+ year old teen should have free-range on the app without any parental overwatch? NO, and that is why we like the Family Pairing option that should be mandatory until the youth can demonstrate good digital citizenship and maturity on the App. Remember, the app is not a right to have, it’s a privilege to have.
Final Thoughts
Full disclosure – we have a White Hatter TikTok page, cringy – yes, but fun – absolutely! Much like all the other apps that are popular with youth, there are some questionable and at times ugly, adult-oriented content that does take place on TikTok that youth shouldn’t see. However, we beleive there are way more positive creative things as well. Unlike many of their competitors, TikTok has shown due diligence to make their platform “safer” for youth and continue to do so more than any other popular teen app. Noticed we said “safer” not “safe”. There is no app or platform on the market that can guarantee 100% safety, that’s why parenting in the online world matters.
Being a teenager is all about curiosity, the joy of discovery, and peer engagement and this, in our opinion, is what makes TikTok so popular with youth. In fact, this is what we have heard from many of the 600,000 teens that we have presented to. It is because of this fact; many other platforms are now adopting similar TikTok functionality in their apps like YouTube Shorts or Instagram Reels.
Social media is about connection, and it is mind-blowing to see how so many teens on TikTok are finding community with one another. They use TikTok to initiate positive social change, share ideas, promote their creativity, solve problems, and to create a sense of belonging for those who are often shunned by others, like teens who identify as LGBTQ+, to name a few.
For adults who believe that teens no longer have big ideas or are not as creative as the youth of the past, they haven’t taken an “eyes wide open” approach to the vast positives that TikTok can provide, but rather a filtered view because of the minority of the bad on the platform that is often highlighted in modern media.
Remember, when we share our concerns with our kids about their onlife world, we should do so in a way that ties into where they are today and is relevant to their life and appeals to their intelligence and experience. This will help them make good online decisions. TikTok is where the teens are today, and as parents, we should tie into this fact and engage with appropriate parental participation, communication, and yes parental supervision specific to TikTok. If one of these are missing, then yes bad things can happen on TikTok, but this is also true for any other app or social media platform on the market today.
To reiterate one more time:
· Should those under 16 have access to TikTok – our opinion, NO!
· Should those who are 16+ have unsupervised free-range access to TikTok – Not unless “Family Pairing” is engaged and used until such time as your child can demonstrate good digital citizenship and maturity on the app, or is now old enough where direct parental overwatch is no longer required.
· Even if Family Pairing is being used, parents should not depend upon any technology to keep their child safe – inappropriate language, sexually explicit, and toxic content can still make it through parental controls. The good evidence-based peer-reviewed research shows us that parental modeling of tech, parental communication, parental participation, and parental over-watch are key to keeping our kids “safer” in the online world. Don’t abdicate your responsibility to digitally parent.
TikTok can be a platform for creativity, self-expression, and entertainment, but it’s essential for parents to stay informed and engaged. By understanding TikTok’s features, potential risks, and implementing safety measures, parents can help their children navigate this trendy social platform in a responsible and safe manner. Open conversations, continuous monitoring, and setting healthy digital boundaries will contribute to a positive and more secure online experience for your child.
Digital Food for Thought
The White Hatter
References
1/ https://www.howtogeek.com/658361/how-to-use-tiktoks-parental-controls/
