China and our children. AIBU to be deeply concerned?

[Concerningalgorithms]

I read this article and am so concerned. So many of our kids are on TT.

https://nypost.com/2023/02/25/china-is-hurting-us-kids-with-tiktok-but-protecting-its-own/amp/

Basically, TT and other SM have the same effect on our brain as addictive substances such as heroine. Developers know this and create highly addictive (make use of our knowledge of the reward centre in our brain), apps/platforms/games that leave us with dopamine crashes when we can’t have it. So that tantrum or meltdown when we say ‘turn screens off now’ is partly, if not mostly, to do with that, is one example.

The article above says that China use different algorithms there for TT so it is helpful for children’s development. They are peddling addictive, concentration lowering crap to children around the world, but protecting their own children.

Why are we allowing this? Why are we not protecting our children too? The science is there.

And AIBU to think that we are at risk, as a country, of raising a generation that will be less well adapted and more vulnerable in the future to a hostile take over?

Everyone is free to parent how they want. My children aren't allowed any social media until they are adults because I think it negatively affects their mental health.
Other people don't let their children's have phones- everyone is different and there should be no judgement on what others are allowed to do, it is simply up to the parents.

I'm a sociologist and digital media is my interest. I spent a year studying TikTok.

I believe that the vast majority of teenagers, if given unlimited access, will eventually be unable to regulate their usage and yes, it's by design. I don't think it's part of some Chinese conspiracy of global domination. Just unfettered capitalism.

Silicon Valley top brass do not allow their children smartphones/addictive apps.

Ask yourself what they know.

Lots of parents don’t do lots of things. Lots don’t provide decent meals - should we force everyone to eat in the state canteen, and close down McDonalds? Lots don’t provide appropriate, good quality clothing - should we force everyone to wear state uniforms?

Maybe just put children in state orphanages from birth, so they can be brought up in the approved way instead of letting lacklustre parents have their shoddy way. Then we can guarantee that bad parents aren’t doing wrong things like giving their children access to TikTok.

We have tight controls. Parents. Some don’t bother. That’s on them.

Can you source evidence to back that up please.

Yanbu - western governments have been ignoring the risk from China for years because of the money they can make

Tiktok and social media are completely banned for all the under 16s in my family

That’s not right actually. Addictive algorithms are explicitly banned in china due to their negative effects, which is why TikTok is banned but not Douyin.

None of the social media companies care about their users, OP, whether they’re children or adults.

Do you really think Mark Zuckerberg or Meta wants to protect your kids?

Or that the CEO of YouTube cares about your kids or wants to protect them?

They all do what the law allows them to do.

They get away with what YOUR government allow them to get away with.

OP , you watch too much propaganda

Have you considered not giving very young children iPads

Totally agree.

All the arguments here against the OP - I'm old enough to remember the same arguments being made about things like smoking among teenagers. "Oh, you can't stop them" "Everyone else's kids will be doing it" "It's better to allow it and help them to moderate their smoking" "If you try to restrict it, it'll make it more attractive" "The kids whose parents come down hard on smoking will be the chain smokers in the long run, mark my words....."

My kids will never be given any sort of internet access. TV and books will suffice.

Isn't all social media addictive in some way or another? I am sitting here scrolling through Mumsnet when I should be changing the beds. Like it or not social media is here to stay. It is up to parents to monitor and control what their children watch.

Now that is unmanageable. Wait till they start secondary school. Or even primary. They need the internet to log on to their classrooms.

I do protect my kids. They don’t have SM.

@Otherstories2002 nothing that proves it (hence stated as opinion) but plenty that sways me to think so. Can't link now as I'm ironically on my mobile, to which I'm moderately addicted myself, but I'll do it later if you're really interested

Op read an article and then becomes an expert in the Brains neural pathways!! 😂

They will learn IT competence in schools. Don't want or need my kid exposed to degeneracy or to get groomed.

The only way to stop children watching TT and other social media is to physically stop them. We can't control the content of all social media to protect children from seeing things they shouldn't. The world doesn't or shouldn't revolve around children. Adults should be able to see what they want on social media, stuff that adults generally don't want to see is being censored, but even then not very successfully. TV is the same if you let children watch unsuitable programmes you can't say that we should censor all programmes to be suitable for children. Dumbing down everything is not the answer.

So surely the simple solution is don’t allow your children to have TikTok? Or other apps that cause similar effects? Parents failing to parent is the issue, china just takes advantage of it.

This. I'm the last one to Mum shame but giving young kids iPads is just a no-no.

The issue with tik too is that they are not owned by the US and they are allowing people to post anti Isreali videos.

I've seen a lot of Jewish teenagers say they are 'unlearning' zionism using Tik Tok videos.

Of course the Chinese govt doesn't want kids to watch Tik Tok. You can't spend 17 hours working in a sweat shop if you're on your phone watching Tik Tok.