To not let my nearly 12 year old have TikTok?

[Sfuandtired]

Apparently I’m too strict and everyone has it? Do you 11/12 year olds have it? And how easy is it to monitor? Tia

They should be 13. There are some very odd people on there tbf, my feed is all tame stuff but I would be concerned about an impressionable youngster going to the wrong side of Tok.

https://parentzone.org.uk/article/tiktok#:~:text=TikTok%20requires%20its%20users%20to,on%20the%20Google%20Play%20Store.

Not unreasonable I wouldn't let an under 16 have tik tok

My DC are 10 & 12, and they don’t have it.
I’ve no idea about how easy it is to monitor it, but I’ve explained to them that a) there’s content on there that’s inappropriate for their age, and b) it’s likely to wreck their attention spans, which will have knock-on effects for the rest of lives re: enjoyment of other activities, and schooling.
They seem satisfied with that explanation thus far, at least.

YANBU. My 12 year old doesn't have it, although most probably do. I'd hold off as long as possible.

No I wouldn’t. TikTok has some
fantastic creators and content on it - but it’s impossible for you to really monitor it and they could end up seeing very worrying stuff on there.

DD is nearly 13 and doesn’t have it. She doesn’t have any social media just WhatsApp. In her group of friends it’s about 50/50.

Depends what they watch.

Mine is all furniture flips, history lessons and people cooking with wild mushrooms.

I’ve actually learnt quite a lot from there. I seem to retain information better when it’s in little chunks.

11 yo here and they don't have it, not a chance.

My 15 year old isn’t allowed it. He’s allowed Instagram and that’s it and even that makes me worry.

My 14 year old has it installed on my iPad. They sit and watch it on the sofa while I’m sat nearby doing work or catching up on emails. They’ve never seen anything dodgy but mostly they search for content creators they’ve seen on other social media and follow them so they don’t flick through the suggested videos only the people they follow.

Outright banning something isn’t helpful I believe. Teaching them to use it in a healthy and constructive way is in the long run better. You can’t keep them off TikTok forever.

No mine weren't but they new friends who just loaded it and hid accounts from patents or had two different accounts one parents didn't know about. That was in year 6!!

Nah DD doesn’t either, she says everyone does but when I chat with other parents they don’t, it just feels like that for her as a lot do.

I am pretty lax parenting wise (used up all my energy with the older DC) but TikTok is one I am budging on yet. We put it on my phone in the safe mode and tried to influence the algorithm a bit and I still wasn’t happy.

she still sees TikToks on Pinterest etc, but it isn’t there being hypnotic all the time

I have a nearly 13 year old and am the worst mummy ever as she has WhatsApp and Pinterest and that's it for the moment!

Mine is this age and isn’t allowed it.