Dangers of TikTok for Kids

Published by Tessa Smith on

what's wrong with tiktok

If you don’t know what is TikTok, it is basically a short video format app, and most teenagers are using this platform as viewers and creators, majority of the content is trash comedy, dance videos, and lip-synchronizing. This content is then consumed by a much younger population.

It doesn’t mean the overall app is simply bad, however, there is a negative perception among the people which I am going to address as to what is wrong with TikTok.

Basically, US lawmakers have attacked TikTok for censorship, privacy, and kid safety.
Because ByteDance, a Chinese corporation, owns TikTok, it will censor anti-China content.

What’s Wrong with TikTok

what's wrong with tiktok

1. Un-Safe for Children

It is a place where adults watch the sexualized content of underage teens. Several Cyber security experts have warned about this phenomenon. Though the parents consider the app provides a platform to their children to showcase their talent. Such as performing dance moves, and singing.

On the other hand, if you scroll through App’s For you page, you will notice the content is often explicit in its very nature. 

However, this problem was there since its inception which is one of the reasons why the App got into the spotlight and media coverage.

Though to eliminate underage explicit content TikTok has improved its algorithm to restrict the such type of material to reach on For you page, and content creator is often warned of community guidelines violation.

2. Misleading Proportions / Scammers Heaven

The children are tricked into buying things, such as some random guy will promote cryptocurrency through fake screenshots and pretending to be a Guru, the young viewers have a habit of getting things done fast, they immediately ask the secret to success and the Guru ends up asking these to join its paid private group or inner circle.

Another Viral trend is Fortnite which is a common trend among the youth, it has a program called SAC(support a creator), that program allows purchases through a code, it is commonly used on other platforms as well.

But, there are some bad actors here on the app, basically, they pretend to be actual content creators but in reality, they are fake accounts, and without realizing the loyal fans end up buying through fake account codes, believing that they have actually done the right thing.

There is clear financial Misconduct happening, as young teenagers are easy targets and impulse buyers.

3. Sick Trends on TikTok

Content creators love to jump on trend to get the maximum views on their videos, the idea behind trend is to actually utilize the main theme of content and recreate it in a different way. It works very well. It can be through trendy music on TikTok or Content-type.

These trends are not all the time good, in the past, there was a trend about the holocaust, where teens will put on makeup with relevant music in the background, and they express the cause of death as being one of the dead ones.

Another sick trend that was going on, was ” Name of boys who will give you disease“. The viewers will comment under the video whatever the name they hated, such as blake, what a douchy name, I hate this name.

These teen content creators are not fully aware of what really means by the holocaust and how many had died in the past. 

Basically, it is just a self-centered approach to gaining benefit through trends whether it is wrong or right, it doesn’t matter. In simple words, using ugly trends to fulfill the greed of going viral.

What is the big issue with TikTok?

4. Degrading values

This is not just TikTok, every other social media is making you antisocial and unhealthy. Twitter quite literally is eroding your intelligence.

Social media, in general, decreases your retention span and undermines critical thinking. 

These platforms are addictive, they use the same tactics which are found in Casiano’s, in gambling, and in drug intake.

The push notification is one example, when you see a notification you jump back to the app to check the response, and once you are back, you are served by their intelligent algorithm the ideal content that you love to consume. It is a never-ending cycle.

In Conclusion, the above content is information only not to defame any platform, but you can certainly see its actual impacts on the youths.

Learn here, How to much money you can make on TikTok

Why TikTok is so Addictive

Lastly, Is TikTok Better Than Facebook?

TikTok collects less information in a few ways. For instance, Facebook & TikTok both gather users’ info across devices, inside other apps, and on websites in addition to collecting the majority of the personal data.

Facebook goes one step above and also keeps the record when you are not on Facebook. The majority of the terms and conditions are accepted by the user.

Categories: TikTok

Tessa Smith

Tessa is a technology enthusiast, Digital Marketer, and tech support with over 4 years of experience. She has worked as Freelance digital marketer. Tessa enjoys writing helpful content about technologies and latest apps.