Get your kids off TIKTOK. It's evil

[Codswallop20]

I've just joined in order to report a video about one of my kids.

This is a dark and evil place that no teenager should be on.

What nasty little shits kids can be. Get your children off it, for their safety and mental health, and for that of others.

My kids aren't on it but I am seriously shocked as to how vile children are to each other. Please please stop your kids.

Now, this is true.

Children should not be on these things.

Yes I’m hearing this too. They all get their own culture. They aren’t all the same.

Yanbu..

They have internet access. They do not have social media. They are allowed out and can see friends. They can have phone calls and are allowed to socialise. However they are not allowed to test missile launching capabilities. So perhaps they are a bit like the North Koreans. And I do make them parade in full uniform on demand.

Make sure they iron those uniforms.

It is absolutely awful. I don't even want to imagine that.

I hope you are ok.

I work in education and out LA has very good e-safety advisors. They always say TikTok is the least safe of all the social media apps. If you do let your kids use it make sure the privacy and security settings are as tight as they can be. You can also set up a family link to keep an eye on what they are seeing.

Teacher here too, completely agree with this.

Except the others aren’t owned and run in China for sinister reasons

Tiktok isn't evil.
It isn't anything but code.

People are shits.

Remove tiktok and shitty people will just be shitty in other ways .

People being arseholes on line has shown me that this is how people actually are when they feel they are operating outside their 'real life' iyswim.

We need to be asking ourselves why so many people are, in their hearts, utter cunts .

Tiktok isn't even the worst of it. The very worst is the viciousness you see when they are anonymous or believe themselves to be. That's when you see who is and who is not 'evil'. Reddit has some fucking disturbing hate filled shit, normally terrifyingly misogynistic. There's that 4chan place, incels etc.

It's scary as hell when you realise what is bubbling away under the surface of people who seem perfectly civilised.

This is so sad. What are we doing to our children? Why do parents allow this? I honestly think it’s a form of abuse. These kids aren’t having a proper childhood. The excuse (from parents that allow is)is always peer pressure. If they don’t have it they’ll miss out. How about they just socialise IRL? How much are your dc interacting with actual peers on the SM? I understand the pandemic hasn’t helped.

Its renowned for being a peodos paradise

Dd1 uses tik tok and never had a bit of bother. Some of the what's app group chats though have been eye opening. She no longer participates in any large group chats so doesn't have to witness it. Due to her dyslexia found it hard ti keep up anyway which was a mixed blessing. I joined around 2 years ago on advice from the school to follow your DC's account. Never seen a single thing inappropriate. I guess a while back some of the Ukraine footage might have been upsetting to some but for us just opened a line of discussion and disappeared from feed fairly quickly. Dd said she didn't get any of it though. The algorithms means you only really see what you want. Ours is horses and other animals mostly, Scottish scenery and recipes . I don't see any of the viral dances etc and yet ti come a read any bullying. The odd criticism of someones riding at a push. Banning things just causes kids to sneak around and watch it anyway. Far better to be open and discuss internet safety regularly

Irrelevant of whether there are worse ones, YANBU OP. My kids aren’t and won’t be on social media full stop.

It is scary. But IRL generally people would keep their children protected from all the utter cunts of the Earth. SM means people are handing easy access to their children to all this disgusting evil behaviour and don’t seem to see anything wrong with it. I despair of it all.

It is a bit of a cess pit but mine have been on it for years and all good so far. There’s no avoiding it to a certain degree.

This.
I'm really sorry OP, it must have been so upsetting to see.

I was thinking this. My fyp is full of funny animals and babies, relatable comedy sketches and recipe inspiration.

There's a reason China restrict under 14s to only 40 minutes a day on their Tik Tok equivalent.

You're not wrong OP, it's not the same as other SM platforms. For some reason it has become the platform of choice for all kinds of weird, toxic shit. Last year my child's school had a terrible bullying situation all carrying on through TT. Took them a long time to stamp it out.

Those of you sneering and ridiculing the OP would do well to do some proper research.

It's hideous, yanbu op

YANBU. It is awful.

I let my DD use my TikTok account to share her anime artwork. It was against my better judgement (she's 12) but she's passionate about a particular anime/manga cartoon and it seemed a good way to encourage her with her creativity and drawing.

Worst thing I ever did.

She was groomed by someone. Thankfully I discovered it before any photos etc were shared.

It's a very long story and not appropriate for here, but you can see how young she is from her comments and style of posts. It was like honey to a bunch of predatory flies. Lots of very inappropriate comments/accounts following her. She ignored them all apart from one account who posed as a younger girl and said she wanted to be her girlfriend.

My failing was that I don't actually use TikTok - I only had an account as I wanted to see something once and it said I had to sign up.

We now have it blocked on our router for everyone.

I am a very regular user of social media, various platforms. The stuff on TikTok is way, way worse than anywhere else. It seems to be barely moderated and kids love the video clips which tend to go viral.

Social media tends to bring out the worst in folk anyway, but TikTok is the absolute pits.

I go on TikTok a lot and have never seen anything that could be remotely considered bullying but there again I am not searching for it so it doesn’t come up in any algorithm

I usually get things like funny huskie dogs, fat cats, how to fold or up cycle things or diy help and adhd tips, vegan food recipes etc

I have adhd. Diagnosed by the NHS mental health team because my Dd saw a few videos on TikTok and the meds I take have certainly helped me.
Never seen anything other than positive or helpful stuff on TikTok.

YANBU my DC are not on any of the sites and thanks to our wifi we have an app that lets us block access to all of them.

Same. I love tiktok for a 5 min pick me up. Never seen anything like others are describing.

I was checking it with a view to allowing my teen on it and was leaning towards letting her until it began showing me competitive under eating videos. I think all social media has a dark side and I’ve shared my concerns honestly with dd1 (14) and she gets why I am not keen but knows I’m open to a conversation. After I shared my concerns she decided she doesn’t need that in her life and it’s quite powerful to choose not to embrace it. She’s on WhatsApp and Pinterest. She’s seen enough bullying on WhatsApp to know I’m not being dramatic. Luckily not her but seeing it happen to others.

i know a 17 and a 16 year old who committed suicide 3 months apart linked to social media.

I know we all parent differently but just how naive some parents are does astonish me. I’m not saying I’ll never let a dc on social, it just needs a maturity and good level of communication that I don’t think they have pre 14 (sometimes older).

There's a woman on there who repeatedly films close ups of her dds genitals as she changes her nappy. Myself and others have reported them yet they arent a violation.

Then there's the wanking men who randomly come up. That's not even the tip of the iceberg for dodgy stuff, the algorithm is actually pretty good as in you only generally see the stuff you're interested in. But the weird shit still comes through. There's no way in hell id let my dc on there. As an adult I have the sense to block dodgy stuff. Kids don't.