to ask about tiktok

[hydeandrun]

I have a 10 year old in y5. Apparently, all her friends use tiktok and she wants to use it too. It would be on the tablet at home. she doesn't have a phone yet.

I don't do social media, so don't really get what this is all about. Anyhow, I said no.

I did the right thing, didn't I? Or is is completely harmless. Any insight appreciated.

Riddled with paedos, I have heard. I'd keep swerving it for now.

My dds keep asking for tiktok, I have also said no despite their peers having it.

Their friends have had sexual comments and threats and have uploaded some highly questionable things on there imo.

There is also a lot of stuff that I wouldnt be happy for them to see too, and I am a fairly lenient parent when it comes to age ratings on films etc.

I didn’t let my 10year old use it. Kids were goading each other to do things on video and the using it to tease/ bully.

I downloaded it to see what the fuss was and it's full of inappropriate videos and swearing for example jokes about wanking, sex, drugs.

Also people make their own videos and put captions over the top and can't spell basic words (they're / there etc) and the pedant in me can't cope with that!

You could be me.
My DD came back from a school trip and I got a notification that she had downloaded tiktok on her kindle.

She is also 10 and doesn't have a mobile phone.

We had a chat about social media and she didn't realise what it was she just wanted to fit in with her friends.

I do think I'm pretty strict, we have deleted it for now.

I have it (I really need to act my age) and I'm set to private so no1 could find me but I like watching stupid videos when I'm supposed to be working. I wouldn't let my 10yo watch it. Most are harmless but quite a few are not. A lot of sexual related vids and a lot of not nice animal videos I've seen.

theres an age limit for a reason, not for children

Thank you all. I was expecting these kind of replies. Case closed!

It’s horrific. I have a ten year old too and ‘all her friends’ (admittedly most) have TikTok. Apart from the utterly addictive nature of it (it’s all they seem to do) it contains racist, sexist, overtly sexual behaviour, lots of quite awful swearing and no possibility of filtering this out.

After much whinging, I told my daughter I would go on and have a look to see what I thought. First one contained the word cunt, second was an altercation in a car which was filmed with an aggressive sweary woman closing in on the camera, third and fourth were both racist (the word paki was used in both). The next one I saw was young ish girls (young teens)dancing sexually to a song with swearing in it and mouthing the words. It was all distasteful and some of it utterly inappropriate and wrong.

You are right To say no. Our school has asked parent to not let their kids on TikTok. It’s a 12 for a reason and even then it should be accompanied by close supervision and an open discussion oN the topics raised.

I would say it's ok for about 13 and up with a private account & supervision ie checking messages etc.

I’d urge you to join and have a look fo r yourself OP. Do it late at night (I went on at 830-9pm after kids were in bed) to see what’s trending. The content will be different from 4pm - it throws you up what is popular at any given time - but shows you what can come up and what your kids have a chance of seeing.

It's basically owned by the Chinese government.

@Bezalelle Can you elaborate on that please?

Dd is 12 and has it. Her account is locked down. She hands her phone over at 8pm so for now it's ok.
Some of her friends download things dd would definitely be grounded for, not sure how aware their parents are.