Tiktok for Tweens - Cover Star app?

[catsarenumber1]

Some children at my DD's junior school have installed an app on something at there houses called Cover Star. Really hate the idea of them sending videos to each other when they are 9 years old... Anyone else used this app or understand if there can be anything positive about it?

Apps like this are basically TikTok with a younger look, and the app store age rating for this kind of app is usually 12 or 13 plus, so 9 year olds fall outside it. The part that tends to cause trouble is not the videos themselves but the comments and messages. If several families feel the same way, agreeing a shared not yet line through the class parents group works better than one household holding out alone.

Avoid it. Posting video online is not a suitable activity for a 9 year old, even within a “closed” app or if their friends are doing it. The videos could be used to train AI or stolen from the app to make porn. And the ethos of making videos for likes or approval is not a good thing for a 9 year old. I wouldn’t even let my 15 year old do this. There is nothing healthy about it and no need for it.

The age rating for the app is 12.

On the point about the videos being misused, that risk is not theoretical. Police on the Isle of Man have reported a sharp rise in children using AI apps to alter photos of classmates, including fake nude images that get used to bully. This piece covers what is happening and what parents can do
learning.kidsnclicks.com/children-ai-images/

It is one more reason the videos for likes model sits badly at 9, whatever an app promises about being closed or moderated.

One precision on my last post. The police report I linked is about children using AI apps to alter classmates' photos. It is not evidence about how Cover Star itself handles videos.