Many parents are happy to see their kids using TikTok to practice singing and dancing based on lots of new trending dances on TikTok.
However, TikTok violates privacy, and security issues are not a new problem for Tiktok. Therefore has been banned from use in India, and the US military on charges of threatening national security
CyberPurify will help you clarify the question: Is TikTok safe for kids and 6 reasons why it is NOT. And find out the way how to protect kids from the dangers of Tiktok.
Is TikTok safe for kids? 6 reasons why it is NOT
TikTok is a free app and social media platform that allows users to share short 15- to 60-second videos. During the Covid epidemic season, the number of adults and especially children using TikTok is increasing day by day. Similar to most social media networks, TikTok collects user data and information.
However, unlike other social networks, TikTok is frequently accused of posing serious risks to users’ security and privacy. That’s why private companies and US government agencies ban their employees from installing and using TikTok on work devices.
The risk of your child using inappropriate language without knowing it
Most kids would love to cover some trending TikTok song or dance, but the important thing is you know your child is dancing and singing along to lyrics that contain insults, racism, swear words, and all kinds of horrible words that you can’t quite imagine?
Some typical words like b*tch, n***a, f*** you, etc. a typical example is Skanky Fishy, many parents have encountered cases of girls as young as 11 years old deliberately posting on TikTok claiming that they have a smelly vagina due to sexual diseases.
Your child’s privacy risk
In its privacy policy, TikTok states that it collects “information you provide in the context of composing, sending, or receiving messages.” With a focus on using the word “composing” messages, TikTok not only collates data and messages you share through the app but also matches content your kids have created or written but they have not yet posted or shared.
In addition, TikTok also takes advantage of any access permissions your child grants, collecting information about phone model, screen resolution, currently used operating system, phone number, email address, location, and even contacts on your child’s device.
TikTok and the risk of hackers targeting your kid’s account
Over the past few years, security researchers have found many security holes in the application. As mentioned, because TikTok has access to a lot of personal information, in a way we don’t want, TikTok has become a favorite route for many hackers.
One common way is hackers send your child a text message that gives your child access to the user’s account.
Another factor is that TikTok uses an insecure HTTP connection to deliver the video instead of the more secure option of HTTPS. This allows cybercriminals to manipulate users’ feeds and deliver inappropriate, misleading, or disturbing content to a younger audience of TikTok users – your kids.
The extremely high risk of addiction
Like every other social networking platform, TikTok develops complex algorithms to get users’ attention and get them to spend as much time on the app as possible. Some kids watch TikTok non-stop, others record videos of their entire day on TikTok.
Do they post all day just because they’re bored or because they want likes and attention from their followers? Whatever the reason, posting too often makes your kids waste time that should be spent on other, more rewarding things.
Regular use of TikTok, as a viewer or content creator, will increase your child’s digital footprint. In essence, this poses serious TikTok security risks as your kids are vulnerable to scams and stalked by bad guys (especially sexual attackers).
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Risk of being exposed to inappropriate content
As mentioned, because TikTok has many popular songs and anyone can create content, your child is very likely to come across profanity and say inappropriate words with their age.
This is not to mention how many children risk their lives to follow dangerous Tiktok challenges without thinking about whether doing this could affect their health and safety, which does it all for the sake of drawing attention and popularity.
Some of the bad things about Tiktok are dangerous TikTok challenges like the Sihouette challenge where the person filming the clip (usually a woman) will stand in the doorway, pose sexy, or dance to arbitrary music. The backlit red light makes the girls appear like a mysterious print that is both seductive and cleverly showing off their body lines.
Source: @mrsmosquito/TikTok
However, the Silhouette Challenge has posed serious problems when there are people who take advantage of this to edit TikTok videos that expose women’s bodies. Some edited clips are posted online without the consent of the owner.
Risk of being sexually assaulted online
Many children, especially girls, are tracked by strangers on the Internet. Will your kids know this problem and solve it? This is impossible!
Strangers will spam your kid with catchy headlines like “I think you’re cool so you should join our group”. And then, as anyone could guess, the link contained pornography or virus software that entered the device.
So keep talking to your child about the dangers of TikTok and make sure your child’s account is private, and regularly check with your child to see if he or she should be following that person or should he/she allow strangers he/she doesn’t know to follow them?
- Continually increase awareness of the dangers of Tiktok or risks on the Internet to teach your child to understand and proactively stay away or notify you when he sees something that concerns him.
- Wise modern parents are always proactive in bringing the best for their children. To better protect your child from all porn sites, for all internet-connected devices your child use, you should pre-order CyberPurify Egg, becoming the first parents to own the solution that 24/7 protects your kids from harmful websites.
- Regularly communicate with your child: About what happens on social media and on the Internet. Let your child understand what is appropriate and inappropriate content for him.
- Familiarize yourself and experience with social media: Don’t be passive, actively update and learn the platforms that are popular with young people.
- Use a content filter: It’s a good thing to take the initiative to educate your children. However, you should use free online content filtering tools to hide 15 types of harmful content on the Internet (porn, bloody murder, terrorism, things that terrify your child).
- Teaching children soft skills examples when using the Internet: Raising children to behave, understand, and protect themselves is important not only in the real world but also in the virtual world – the Internet and social networks, where both children and you come into contact with and use every day.
- Teach your child about a digital footprint: what your child sends or posts will live forever on the Internet and your child is a very high risk of online sexual assault and falling prey to sexual predators, online sexual assault, and blackmail.
- Watch for signs of abnormal mental health: staying up too late, staying away from family members, suddenly not wanting to use social media, low self-esteem, quiet, etc. This could very well be a sign that your child has been sexually assaulted online or has become a victim of cyberbullying.
Knowing what TikTok is, what Tiktok issues for children are, and what dangerous Tiktok challenges are also a way for parents to better protect their children from harmful content on the Internet.
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