The appearance of too many entertainment applications in the market nowadays is certainly worrying for parents. In addition to various negative exposures to some extent can cause harm and impact on children if there is no close monitoring.
Among the many applications available in the market, TikTok is an application that is hot among today's young generation and various activities involving the use of the application. At first, the application was known as 'Douyin' which means short video but was changed to TikTok when it became more popular. It is used to watch and upload free 60-second videos of everything including dances, lip movements, funny animal videos and more. Each user is organized with a "For You" Page based on expressed interests and users can follow, comment and like any video.
However, the question is, how safe is this application for children to use since it has no boundaries, in fact anyone is free to see what is loaded in the application without any restrictions.
Being the choice of children in Malaysia as young as four years old, TikTok is a phenomenon that worries parents enough. Although users under the age of 13 can view the censored version of TikTok, some are concerned that they might lie about their age to view uncensored content. Coupled with the occurrence of the Covid-19 pandemic, it became one of the reasons for the increase in the number of TikTok users due to their presence at home all the time.
Although TikTok gives children and teenagers the opportunity to express themselves creatively using a simple and free framework for video, audio and photo editing similar to professional tools, this social media needs to be seen more widely with its long-lasting effects from the perspective of negative. The negative elements in TikTok can to some extent affect the way they think, the way they display behavior and even the way they express their feelings and communicate with other individuals.
The use of TikTok is also more dangerous for children because this group is potentially exposed to sexual predators. Although the platform is working hard to reduce the risk of sexual predators among minors, the problem is still prevalent. For example, adults can send sexually explicit messages and pictures to children. What is even more dangerous, the use of TikTok can harm privacy where this application can mortgage the privacy of children, teenagers and even their own families. For example, when children make videos at home, they indirectly reveal the privacy space in the house, share locations, show off their parents' cars and show off the car plates. As a result, irresponsible parties can take the opportunity based on such personal information to be used as threats, cybercrimes, or physical crimes. In addition, children and teenagers can also be exposed to negative comments on TikTok which can have a negative impact on their self-esteem and confidence.
Children and teenagers also tend to spend a long time and may even become addicted to watching videos for hours at a time since this application has "non-stop streaming" content. On the other hand, they can also become obsessive about their appearance since there are children or teenagers who use this application to constantly improve their appearance to attract the attention of their followers and others. This situation tends to make their social life unbalanced due to the unlimited use of TikTok which eventually leads to the breakdown of family relationships because of spending most of the time making videos.
Therefore, to control the situation before it gets worse, parents need to know their children's TikTok account names, follow their children's accounts, and make sure their accounts are set to private. Make sure use the "Family Pairing Feature" in TikTok, a control tool that allows parents to link their children's TikTok accounts with their own accounts, giving them direct control over their children's privacy settings. Parents are also encouraged to have an open dialogue with their children about the types of videos they like to watch and post. The conversation should be a relaxed conversation so that they are not awkward to share with their parents while also inserting some advice for them about the correct use of the TikTok application.
Besides, parents also need to teach children to control the comment section whether it is a private account or a public account. They have the power to decide whether they want to allow comments on their videos from everyone, followers only or limit them outright. This can be set either at the account level or customized for each video they create.
So, in conclusion, is TikTok safe for our children? Although it sounds a bit cliche, the best way to keep our children safe from the dark side of TikTok is to prevent them from downloading this app. Admittedly, it is not a practical decision to make. This is because banning children from this app cannot determine that they will remain safe online. Therefore, we as parents should play an important role in ensuring the safety of TikTok use among children. If they are users of any social media platform, make sure as parents, we know and understand about the platform used. It is also recommended that we download the application itself and see what it really is, in addition to asking the child about what they see on the application.
