To ask whether your 11 year old is allowed Tik Tok?

[devadreams]

DS (11) keeps asking for Tik Tok and I'm unsure whether to allow it. Lots of his friends have it but I am wary having heard quite a lot of bad press about it. Main concerns are him seeing (and potentially sharing?) inappropriate content and the fact it's a huge time sap.

Is your 11 year old allowed it and if so, what controls/rules do you have in place?

If you don't allow it, why not?

It's all quite new to me and would appreciate views from both sides before making a decision.

Just. Say. No.

But for peace, maybe compromise that YOU will have an account and you can both watch together...but literally only with her sitting right next to you.

Actually, have just read more about app itself and data harvesting.

Changing previous post back to:

Just. Say. No!

Allllll of DDs friends have it, I feel awful saying no but there is not a chance! I’ve told her she can have it when she’s 13 but that still seems too young. The children who do have it a her school have changed beyond recognition in year 6, I’m sure this happens anyway but the mimicking firing guns and doing drugs while stripper dancing is just ridiculous and honestly I see it as a safeguarding concern, some of the videos have been reported to school.

The first video I saw when I checked through the site was a teenage girl showing her face when the first three inches go in’. Just as an example of the easily accessible content, so those of you allowing your children to have it can’t say you didn’t know.

I love tiktok and use it regularly. So I know its definitely not something an 8 year old should be seeing. Most of it is harmless but there's some disturbing stuff that comes up randomly that even I don't want to look at so I scroll past however a child will watch out of interest. Maybe just watch it with them instead then you can skip past ones that look inappropriate, you can usually tell in the first few seconds what kind of video it is.

11 year old I mean

@premiumshoes

No. It's hideous. Not for children. Watching it with them is no use when a dead animal pops up on the screen. By the time you acknowledge and respond your child has that image imprinted in their head. You will see glamorisation of self harm, is that something you would like your 11 year old to see? The app is rife with that stuff. And paedophiles.

A private profile does not stop them seeing things. Don't allow it. It's the most dangerous app going.

Exactly this.

Wow, I'm really grateful for all the responses on here, thank you.

I was worried perhaps I was being a bit fuddy duddy about it all (not necessarily a bad thing, sometimes we have to be the fun police as parents!) but clearly my concerns were founded. Reading how easy it would be for DS to view wholly inappropriate content (that even I as an adult wouldn't wish to see) confirms my decision to say no.

In DS' mind "all his friends" have it. Even if they do, I'm quite happy to be the mum who said no if it protects him from some of this awful stuff. I do also have serious concerns about him wasting a shed load of time on an app like this. He isn't great at imposing any kind of self control when it comes to screen time (like most children his age no doubt, totally normal) and if he is having screen time, I'd rather it wasn't on something like Tik Tok.

He absolutely wouldn't want to watch it with me. He wants to watch it with his friends and to share videos he finds funny and maybe create some of his own. He'd be mortified if I suggested we watch it together! He's going to be gutted when I tell him it's a definite no, but I feel I've informed myself enough about it now to confidently say absolutely not.

Thank you again, all!