TikTok, launched by the Chinese technology company ByteDance in 2016, has increased its popularity in recent years. Parents are very worried about the application, which is actively used by children and young people. Many famous names support the campaign to shut down TikTok, which families started on Twitter.
According to research by media review company NewsGuard, TikTok shows children under the age of 13 videos containing misleading information about anti-vaccine and Covid-19. Similarly, it is stated that many research companies ignore what they say they oppose on the grounds that the platform brings more views.
Families demand to close TikTok against the ‘slap your teacher!’ trend
Larianna Jackson, an 18-year-old Covington High School student in the USA, uploaded a video of her beating a 64-year-old physically disabled English teacher to the platform due to the slapping her teacher trend launched on TikTok in the past days. This trend was followed by children in many countries of the world. Families, who are afraid of this situation in our country, demand that TikTok be closed as soon as possible.
Is TikTok really targeting children?
ByteDance actually says that it has teams within the application that fight false information and trends that will mislead the society. Moreover, it allows children under the age of 13 to register with the application only with limited access. However, research has revealed that children between the ages of 9 and 13 can easily become a member by deceiving the application.
Moreover, another accusation came from academics. For example, at the University of Illinois, Dr. Katrine Wallace said in an interview with Insider that TikTok’s teams working on the subject are acting very slowly on purpose. Allegedly, if a video is on the trends list and is watched by millions of people, even if it contains incorrect information and bad example, the application does not interfere for a long time.
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