TikTok Pros and Cons: Is TikTok Bad for Kids?

TikTok is the hottest social networking platform for adolescents and teens right now. As a popular video-sharing app, TikTok has been downloaded over 200 million times in the United States alone.

According to the statistics, it is said that TikTok users spend an average of 52 minutes per day on the app. Some kids may spend significantly more time in the app than others. But as a parent, you may still have questions about TikTok like: is TikTok bad? What is bad about TikTok? No need to be worried, this article will give you the answer.

Part 1. What is TikTok?

TikTok operates as Douyin in China and boasts over 300 million monthly active users there. It is a video-sharing app that lets users make and share 15-second videos about whatever they like. Users can use filters, background music, and stickers to make unusual and entertaining videos, which are frequently choreographed. The TikTok app has been downloaded 1.5 billion times worldwide, with teens accounting for roughly a third of its active monthly users.

Users sign up for TikTok using their phone number, email address, or a third-party account like Facebook or Instagram. You can find videos by searching for popular creators, genres, or hashtags once logged in. You can also search for friends who have already downloaded the app using your phone contacts or social media links.

Part 2. What Some Parents Say about TikTok?

It can be difficult for parents to keep up with all of the latest social media platforms that children use these days. But in the last few months, you've probably started hearing a lot about TikTok.

Many parents think that TikTok has a nasty side in that it has become a platform for sexual predators preying on young people. Some parents said that the app provides a lot of adult content which is inappropriate for their kids, while some said that kids are likely to spend a long time in the app, and may even grow addicted to watching videos for hours at a time, due to the apps "endless stream" of content. Many parents complained about the data collection of children under 13 by the app as well.

Part 3. Is TikTok Bad?

While much of the content is amusing, there is a darker aspect to the tale, where discrimination and bullying of people are all too common. So let us find out TikTok's pros and cons to check whether it's bad for kids.

Pros:

1. It Can Be a Good Educating Tool

The good news is that there are many educational channels on Tiktok from which you can learn many new things. For example, @Iamthatenglishteacher is a channel where you can take grammar lessons and the channel has over 1.5 million followers. There are other channels where you can learn cooking tips, dancing steps, singing. And it provides tips and tricks across education, health, fitness, beauty, motivation, and many other categories as well.

2. It Can Be a Good Creative Outlet

While it may not look so at first glance, there is an art to creating TikTok videos. When generating dancing TikToks, for example, you must choose from a variety of filter settings, select appropriate music, and come up with creative dance techniques. When creating TikTok comedy skits, you'll need to write a script and come up with creative ways to act everything out. So there's a method to the craziness, and it's good for children's self-expression and creativity.

3. It Can Be Good for Making Friends

TikTok is available in 150 countries that means your children can reach a wider audience. They can share their creative ideas with millions of users globally. TikTok is a fantastic platform for folks who want to become famous among their peers without any exceptional abilities or skills.

4. It Offers Earning Opportunity

TikTok creators are well-known for being among the highest-paid influencers in the world. There are currently specific TikTok scouting agencies, TikTok creator houses, and a slew of sponsors eager to showcase their wares to their target consumers via this medium. Even though only a small fraction of users reaches this stage, there's always the possibility that your child will succeed in the TikTok industry.

Cons:

1. Dangerous Challenges

TikTok has become popular as a result of viral challenges. They might range from intensive dance routines to life-threatening challenges for your children. Many difficult challenges have gone viral on the platform that could put kids in danger and potentially lead to serious injury — or worse.

A so-called coronavirus challenge was viral on TikTok, which encouraged challengers to lick items in public. At that time, there were almost 100 million views on TikTok for the #coronaviruschallenge hashtag. As a parent, you have to be worried that your child does not perform any such challenge.

2. Sexual Predators

While TikTok is working hard to address issues with sexual predators reaching out to children under the age of 13, the problem still exists. Everyone could create an account there and get access to other TikTokers and message them without any restriction. Except for those who’ve turned on restricted mode.

3. Inappropriate Videos

One of TikTok's most significant features is the ability for users to navigate through recommended videos. Given this, it's easy to understand how children could be exposed to stuff that wasn't meant for them.

4. Mental Health

Kids can become overloaded by the pressure to create more and better content, which can lead to anxiety, particularly if they aren't becoming famous.

Part 4. As a parent what you can do?

As a parent what you can do?

Begin by discussing how your child should use TikTok.

1. Assure them that the videos and comments they post have an impact on their own and others' reputations and that they should never publish anything that compromises their privacy or security.

2. Make sure your kid understands how to block anyone who bullies, threatens, or humiliates them, or if they don't want that individual to see or comment on their videos.

3. TikTok has a feature called Family Pairing, which allows parents and guardians to link their TikTok account to their child's account to control how they use the app.

4. Discuss the necessity of keeping passwords and other personal information private with your children.

5. You can also teach them about time management and life balance. Make sure they do not get addicted to this app and always keep an eye on the screen time.

You can also download the parental control app for TikTok. Wondershare FamiSafe app is the most downloaded app by parents to keep an eye on their child’s TikTok account.

Part 5. Wondershare FamiSafe-Parents’ best helper

It is one of the most extensively used parental software applications that allow you to monitor your child's TikTok activities. It boasts a plethora of impressive features and tools. It allows you to track and monitor your child's TikTok activities. FamiSafe is not only able to help you examine your kids' TikTok watch history, but also set a scheduled screen time to prevent your kids from getting addicted to social apps like TikTok. This can be a very useful tool for you, as it will allow you to protect your child from cyberbullying, online harassment, and other forms of online crime.

FamiSafe Features to Keep Your Kids Secure

1. Tiktok History

The app allows you to track your kids’ TikTok watch history. In this way, you can know what your teens are interested in, and what content they are more engaged in. You may also keep track of your child's activities in real-time using FamiSafe.

2. Screen Time

You can also limit your children's screen time and regulate their data usage using FamiSafe. You can use daily timers to limit how much time your child spends on TikTok on a given day. When the timer expires, the app is disabled for the remainder of the day. Parents could set scheduled screen time for different periods. For example, 1-2 hours screen time during school time, 3-4 during the weekend. Using this feature, you can also track how much time your kid spends on TikTok.

3. App Blocker

With FamiSafe, you can block TikTok or other apps once you noticed that your kids have spent much time there. The app sends an instant alert when your kids try to open any blocked apps or inappropriate content. Instead of completely limiting your child's phone or tablet, you can block the specific app to prevent addiction.

4. Location Sharing

When your child is out of your sight, it's impossible to know if he's safe or not. You might be concerned if he or she is gone for several hours. The FamiSafe location tracker software, on the other hand, can help you avoid this headache.

You can track your child's current location with the support of this app. You can also look at his location history based on a timeline.

Conclusion

For young people, using social media may be a fun activity and a nice way to stay in touch with their friends. Even though TikTok has considerably increased its efforts to keep teens safe, your child must be informed of the threats they may face and you should teach them how to respond. When used correctly, TikTok is a great app for your children to learn and get connected with the world. Using parental control apps you can ask your children to use TikTok and share their creativity worldwide.

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