App Alert

The danger of TikTok to children is real

Three months ago, before Covid-19 took over, computers were not central to my 10-year-old daughter’s life. Neither was the iPad, email, texting, or an insidious app used for making and sharing short videos called TikTok.

If you haven’t seen TikTok in action, in a nutshell, it allows users to record 15-second videos and upload them for the world to see. People post everything from comedy routines to lip-syncing acts, but in this house it’s dancing.

Every day my daughter films herself doing a short sequence of hip-hop-esque moves as she mumbles the lyrics to some song. Then she uses the TikTok app to share the video with her friends. Seems innocent enough, right?

Wrong.

TikTok claims its mission is to “capture and present the world’s creativity, knowledge, and moments that matter.” Um, right. Try capturing kids’ attention and personal data by getting them addicted to filming themselves.

Previously known as Musical.ly, TikTok was acquired by the Chinese company ByteDance in 2017, and has since become one of the most-used apps across the globe. It’s available in more than 150 countries and has about 800 million monthly active users. The pandemic has fueled an explosion in its use. According to Sensor Tower, in the first quarter of 2020, TikTok was downloaded 315 million times — making it the best quarter for any app, ever.