Are TikTok, Kwai and Like apps dangerous for kids?

2024 Author: Malcolm Clapton | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-17 03:44

Cyberbullying, frank dances and flash mobs on the verge - we understand when a popular application can cause problems.

For two days in a row, an incomprehensible thing happened in the children's room: Mura Masa was playing outside the door, and the children stomped rhythmically and noisily dropped something on the floor. “Probably, they are rehearsing the number for the school evening,” I thought, and was mistaken.

Modern teenagers are not like that: it turned out that they filmed a flash mob to post it on TikTok, a new popular social network whose users share short videos. Until last year, TikTok was used only in China, but then the service went international: in the United States, for example, by the end of 2018, it was downloaded more often by TikTok surpassed Facebook, Instagram, Snapchat & YouTube in downloads last month than Instagram, Facebook and YouTube.

There are also a couple of similar apps - Like and Kwai. Before our eyes, these social networks are gaining frenzied popularity among children.

Why kids are interested in TikTok, Kwai and Like

Modern children are sorely lacking in spontaneity. Often their life is scheduled by the minute: school, music studio, swimming pool, homework, sleep. All this is strictly monitored by an observer in the person of a nanny or a non-working grandmother. It turns out that a child, mentally and physically, is almost never alone.

This is superimposed on the fashion for "efficiency". At an early age, the main activity of a child should be play - a situation where he thinks and acts freely. But now he is offered a whole development plan from the cradle: early reading techniques, swimming - before walking, baby fitness and English.

All activities are carefully planned by adults so that there is no time to "toil with foolishness." This is how our children grow up - in a cozy home prison.

Meanwhile, a child needs freedom as much as an adult. He himself must learn to be happy, understand himself and others, formulate goals and look for methods to achieve them, demonstrate skills and assert his status. When a child looks at other people, observes them and explores different social groups, an identity is formed.

Those children, whom their parents cannot completely “break”, choose to escape on the social network. At first it was VKontakte and Facebook, but then moms and dads came there, and new platforms appeared - TikTok, Kwai, Like. Here, no one is watching you and you can be yourself: running barefoot through the snowdrifts, yelling all sorts of nonsense at the top of your lungs, kissing like an adult, eating shaving foam and drowning textbooks in the toilet. In general, doing everything that mom and dad enjoyed in childhood. Parents often do not see this connection and, alarmed, come to me.

What are parents afraid of?

Unlimited freedom is dangerous. A child is not always able to make global decisions and be responsible for them. His mental structures have not yet been designed in such a way as to understand well his inner world and the feelings of other people.

But total control is no less dangerous, because if you compress the spring strongly, it will hurt. Parental anxiety often boils down to the fact that if the child shows independence, something dangerous will certainly happen to him. To protect him, moms and dads control every step. They perceive the child not as a separate person, but as their continuation, and not the best side, but the one that cannot be completely trusted.

We have to look for a middle ground between total freedom and tight control. Each time it lies in different planes, and it can only be found through experiments.

To grow a happy and free personality, it is necessary to create at least a small space around the child, not controlled by anyone but himself. Leave him autonomy in at least some areas of activity - and the sooner the better.

In this case, the child will see you not as a family dictator, but as a loving person to whom you can come for advice, with whom you can cry and discuss problems. In a space of freedom that is not controlled by you, there will be more mutual trust. This means that there will be fewer reasons for anxiety and concern.

What kids do in apps

TikTok, Like and Kwai are almost identical social networks. Each service is tailored for the creation of short video clips, the participants of which sing or dance. Videos gain several hundred thousand, or even a million views in a couple of days.

In addition to amateur music, users have fun with crazy challenges - this is interesting mainly for younger students and adolescents. Each service has small features.

TikTok

The international social network was born by absorbing the Musical.ly platform. She positions herself as a channel for the presentation of musical talent.

There are many videos of bloggers singing and dancing, and there are as many adults as children. Teens are mostly just fooling around to the music: making faces, repeating the words of songs, filming classmates, and sometimes teachers. The reverse side of freedom is obscene gestures for the camera, dances, where children try to repeat the frank movements of the stars, and also videos with tracks with obscene vocabulary. A lot of videos were recorded under the song "Sex, whiskey, Caribbean coke", which for some reason beloved by schoolchildren.

However, this is only a small fraction of the total content. Most of the videos, children are just dancing or demonstrate completely harmless hobbies: physical experiences, cosplay or unusual hairstyles.

Like

Last summer, the number of Russian users of the social network reached The new social network LIKE is taking by storm the young Internet audience of Russia 7 million. In fact, this service is a free video editor with special effects, in which the resulting videos can be shared.

The lion's share of the local audience is children and adolescents from 7 to 16 years old. In my opinion, they feel freer than on TikTok, and not only dance to the music, but really fight for likes. For this, young users draw on their faces with a marker, try on “pregnant” bellies, kiss for a while, and stick their grandmother's dentures in plasticine. All this is mixed with completely harmless content, where children shoot sketches or just dance.

Kwai

Popular social network with many filters for video editing. As if by magic, you can remove teenage acne from your face, become a character in memes or find yourself in a blooming spring garden. Last year, Russians downloaded Kwai more often. The Chinese video network Kwai became the leader in downloads in Russia than Gosuslugi, WhatsApp and VKontakte.

I saw articles In China, they are concerned about the "embroidery on a living body" that in the homeland of the service in China, users often post inappropriate content: for example, they arrange pranks with self-harm. In the Russian version, I did not find this - the children were singing, dancing and fooling around - but I fully admit that in the struggle for attention, teenagers can shoot something similar.

Why TikTok, Kwai and Like can be dangerous

Weak content moderation

Entertainment Like and TikTok are not so harmless: along with the usual videos, there are videos, the participants of which are naked or dance too openly in short shorts and underwear. It is not so dangerous that a child will stumble upon adult content and watch it, as if in pursuit of popularity or money he himself becomes a participant in such a video.

There are messages from Eight-year-olds targeted by sexual predators on the live-streaming app TikTok that pedophiles tried to contact children through the built-in TikTok and Like chats. As a rule, attackers register an account in the name of the student and on his behalf, they allegedly try to make friends with the victim. After a period of communication, a new friend asks to send photos without clothes.

In applications, you can find videos that shock even adults with their content: flash mobs, whose participants cut themselves on the camera with a knife and talk about the frailty of life. Some time ago, content was published under the hashtag #killingstalking in which bloggers smeared with blood drove a real knife across the throat or wrists. Now, according to the administrators of the service, such videos are quickly deleted, but in practice they appear again, just under different tags.

What to do

If you find out that a child has published candid photos of himself on social networks, explain to him the possible consequences of such actions: contempt from peers, bullying, interest from intruders, loss of self-esteem and respect of others.

Find out exactly where the images were posted and delete them together. It is advisable to delete the account itself. If photos were sent in private chat or by mail, take steps to ensure the safety of your child, especially if contact information was provided along with candid photos. Perhaps, for safety reasons, the child must be accompanied by an adult for some time.

If you find content that is unacceptable to children in the application - pornography, videos with self-harm or calls to suicide - calmly explain to the child the danger and together remove the application from the smartphone.

If your child takes part in dangerous challenges, the participants of which commit extreme actions (jumping from rooftops, hanging on the windowsill, and so on), this is a serious reason to think about your relationship.

Playing with death is an unconscious attempt to punish oneself. "I'd rather die than …" - think about a possible continuation of this phrase. Perhaps there is no understanding in your family, adults are passionate about their life and they are not up to the child, he has problems with classmates, and in this way he is trying to attract attention. Or maybe this is done for money? There are many reasons, and it is better to consult a psychologist to find yours.

Threats to personal safety and bullying

Like any social media platform, TikTok, Like and Kwai can be a potential threat to the physical safety of both children and adults. If in his videos a child indicates his real name, place of residence and other personal data that allow him to be found in reality, he can attract the attention of mentally ill people or intruders.

The danger may not necessarily go out into the real world. Internet bullying is no less terrible - messages with insults and threats, as well as photos or videos posted by the aggressor on social networks without the consent of the victim. This can cause a huge amount of fear in a child. Cyberbullying leads to tragedies every year, including suicide attempts.

What to do

If the child complained about threats from strangers, calmly ask him to show the correspondence. Take screenshots of the messages just in case. Ask if the child has left personal information about himself in open sources (address, phone or school number, last name and first name).

Promise the offender to complain about his threats, including to the Investigative Committee, and leave a complaint to the administration of the application about the user.

It is best to remove the account from the social network and explain to the child what danger can come from mentally ill people or criminals. Ask to be informed immediately if the threats somehow continue or become reality. After that, immediately contact the police.

A complete ban on the use of social networks will not eradicate all difficulties: the child will need free space anyway. It is much more correct not to limit it, but to work on your mutual trust.

If you saw an icon of one of the new social networks in a children's smartphone, ask directly what kind of application it is and ask to show the page. If possible, ask your child to show subscriptions to understand what topics he is interested in. Most likely, you will find various tomfoolery there, but perhaps your attention will be attracted by something that cannot be attributed to harmless pranks.

In any case, explain to your child the rules of conduct in cyberspace and the importance of protecting personal information. Today, they are just as relevant as the well-known "Do not enter the elevator with strangers."