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Control TikTok to safeguard our children

Tik Tok

 Tik Tok's popularity is prominent among the 18-24 age group, solidifying its position as a preferred choice for young users.

Photo credit: AFP

TikTok maintains its status as the fastest-growing social network with an impressive 44 per cent of users actively engaging with the platform. The app’s popularity is prominent among the 18-24 age group, solidifying its position as a preferred choice for young users.

A recent survey by the “Reuters Institute Digital News Report 2023” has unveiled Kenya as the global frontrunner in TikTok usage. The country accounts for a significant 54 per cent of TikTok usage for any purpose with 29 per cent specifically for news consumption. Closely behind it is Thailand as South Africa comes third with 50 per cent general usage and 22 per cent for news consumption on TikTok.

The report also highlights the rising influence of TikTok as a platform for news distribution, especially among younger audiences. Its rapid ascent is reshaping the digital news landscape and challenging the supremacy of established social media platforms, with the popularity of the traditionally dominant Facebook now declining.

Sharing videos

Born in 2016, this app has found its true home in Kenya. A remarkable number of Kenyans utilise it for diverse purposes—including news sources and distribution, content creation and sharing videos from their favourite content creators. But now, there is its emerging dark side, the ‘Sodom and Gomorrah’ , which usually goes live past bedtime.

Surprisingly, some TikTokers are said to go live past bedtime while broadcasting their own nudity, streaming footage of themselves chomping miraa (khat) or evening talking alcohol shiftlessly, engaging in fantastical banter . Others go live while performing indecent sexual acts on themselves calling for screen tapping for likes and more audience.

But children also access the app—whether during the watershed period and even the wee hours, during the go-live menace, among other vices, posing a risk to them due to the explicit content shared. That calls for regulation of TikTok. That can help address the various concerns related to user safety, data privacy, content moderation and overall platform ethics. That would strike a balance between promoting creativity and expression while safeguarding users from potential harm.

Teenagers

With its significant user base of young children and teenagers, regulation can impose stricter guidelines for content moderation and age verification to protect minors from exposure to harmful or age-inappropriate material. Its rapid growth is also a challenge in moderating content and preventing the spread of harmful, misleading or offensive material. Regulations could enforce more transparent and accountable content moderation practices.

With the children at home for the August holiday, parents and guardians ought to be vigilant and ensure minors are not exposed to harmful or inappropriate content, not only on TikTok but also the various other social media and digital platforms.

Mr Kitema is a communications and public relations specialist. [email protected].