What Parents Need to Know About TikTok

With over 1.6 billion active users, TikTok has firmly cemented itself as one of the most popular social media platforms of all time. TikTok is the leading video streaming app in the world and since its launch it has only grown in popularity and accessibility. From dance crazes to avant garde recipes, trending audios to multi-part story times, TikTok has documented our lives like no other. However, despite its unparalleled popularity, TikTok, like all social media platforms, presents unique risks to children and teens.

For those responsible for safeguarding children and teens, this can evoke concerns about its safety and how best to protect young people whilst still allowing them the freedom to use the app. In this article we will explore what TikTok is and the debate around its suitability for young people. We will also provide guidance on the parental controls available and some safety tips to help you keep your child safe on TikTok.

What is TikTok?

First launched in 2016, TikTok is a short-form video sharing platform where people can share, create and watch videos. Users can browse different content on a personalised feed known as the ‘For You Page’ (FYP). The videos shown to users differ from person to person and are personalised using different algorithms. These algorithms are intended to create an FYP that caters to an individuals’ interests based on previous content that they have engaged with. As with most social media platforms, TikTok users can engage with others, be it friends or strangers, to find new and welcoming online communities. TikTok themselves state their mission is ‘to inspire creativity and bring joy.’

Whilst TikTok is used by an array of different people, it is predominantly used by Gen Z and Gen Alpha. In March 2024 it was found that in the UK alone, 76% of online users aged between 15 – 24 years old regularly engaged with the app, spending approximately 30 hours per month on it. In comparison, users aged 25 – 34 years old spent approximately 17 hours per month on TikTok, highlighting its significant popularity amongst younger people.

Is TikTok Safe for Kids?

As mentioned above, TikTok is incredibly popular amongst young people. An Ofcom report found that TikTok was the third most used platform amongst children, with half of children aged 3 – 17 years using the platform in 2021. Whilst TikTok does have a minimum age requirement of 13, in 2022 Ofcom highlighted the rise of ‘TikTots’, children as young as 5 who were defying age restrictions and/or creating secret profiles without their parents’ knowledge.

Both Gen Z and Gen Alpha are viewed as ‘digital natives’ as, unlike previous generations, they have never known a world without the internet. As such, the internet and by extension social media, has greatly influenced their upbringing and their reliance on technology and mobile devices.

The vast reach of the app, its popularity and the wide variety of content that it provides, can make it difficult for parents and guardians to monitor the online activities of their children. This leads to understandable concerns about the safety and appropriateness of the platform.

However, just like any other social media platform there is the good, the bad and the ugly. It’s important to have an awareness of the pros and cons of the app so that you can make better informed decisions to protect your child, whilst respecting their freedom of expression and autonomy.

The Good:

Creative outlet – In TikTok’s own words it is intended to inspire creativity. Whether it be lip-synching to trending songs or trying a viral cake recipe, TikTok is a powerful creative outlet for many. The platform allows users to try new things and share their successes and failures with others, fostering a sense of community and encouraging others to use it as a creative playground.

Informative – Somewhat unexpectedly, TikTok has become a popular source of news for users. Whilst there are valid concerns about misinformation being shared by unqualified individuals, popular news outlets such as BBC, Al Jazeera and The Guardian have TikTok profiles through which they regularly share news about world events.

Discovery – As a global platform TikTok has the potential to show users new and exciting things that they have never come across before. Exposure to different music, culture and ways of life is easily accessible with TikTok and for some the only opportunity available for them to discover new things.

The Bad:

Exposure to explicit content – When TikTok first became popular, content predominantly centred around viral dances and lip-synching. This brought with it the risk that young people would be exposed to explicit language that they may adopt into their vocabulary without understanding its meaning or potential cultural/historical gravity. Whilst this is still a prominent concern, the type of content on TikTok has diversified greatly and that brings with it the risk of exposure to more than just explicit words. TikTok doesn’t allow users to search for content with certain hashtags, such as #sex, however explicit content is prevalent on the app and not necessarily difficult to find.

Screen addiction – Social media by its very nature is designed to be addictive. Short-form content is intended to capture your attention and each view, like and share triggers a dopamine release which keeps you in a cycle of viewing, liking and sharing. TikTok is particularly well catered to this and features such as endless scrolling cause people to unintentionally spend hours at a time scrolling through video after video. In fact, a 2022 Frontiers in Psychology study argued that TikTok was the most addictive platform compared to all other social media platforms.

Damages self-esteem – Social media often presents a picture perfect, unrealistic version of people’s lives. However, without the knowledge that what they are seeing isn’t real or at the very least has been manipulated to look ‘perfect,’ users can often find themselves comparing against an unrealistic and unattainable ideal. This can lead to a negative self-image and low self-esteem which research suggests further fuels an addiction to social media platforms like TikTok.

The Ugly:

Grooming – Whilst TikTok profiles for children are automatically set to private, should a young person create a secret account, they can set whatever age they wish and make their account public. This means that anyone can see their videos, access their location information or send them direct messages. This leaves young people vulnerable to grooming as strangers can follow and interact with them under the guise of being someone else or having innocent intentions.

Cyberbullying – As with all social media platforms there is the risk of your child being subjected to cyberbullying. Cyberbullying is online bullying or harassment that utilises technology often because it affords the bully a level of anonymity. Bullying of any kind can have a catastrophic effect on a child’s mental health and there have been a number of unfortunate incidents in recent years that have highlighted the damaging effect of bullying. Given the prevalence of mobile devices, cyberbullying presents a unique issue in that children often don’t receive any respite from harassment, even when they are not at school or physically near their bully. This, coupled with the popularity of TikTok and frequent use of mobile devices can make cyberbullying feel inescapable.

Dangerous challenges – A notable part of TikTok’s popularity has been different online challenges. Whilst many of these challenges are fun and light-hearted, others can be harmful and incredibly dangerous and there have been reported incidents of children and young people dying as a result of attempting different online challenges. Online challenges can be dangerous, however the popularity of them on the app and the regularity with which a young person might be seeing them, can normalise the behaviour and minimise the danger in their mind.