The popularity of TikTok has grown rapidly in recent years, since 2016 to date more than 150 million people have downloaded the application, according to information from the company that owns the platform, ByteDance .
20 percent of its users are made up of teenagers, between the ages of 11 and 18. Being 55 percent women and 45 percent men.
TikTok allows you to create and edit videos with music, with a maximum duration of 60 seconds, something that makes it very fun for minors. Although it may seem harmless, the reality is that sexual predators are also part of it, so parents need to protect their children.
The influencer Marko visited the set of A New Day to talk about his experience with TikTok and share how to take care of the safety of children in this social network. His first observation was that parents should eliminate direct messaging .
Antonio Torrealba, an expert in social networks, invited parents to use the “save mode” , a tool with which they can manage the activity of the children on the platform, know who follows them, who they follow, what they are seeing and several more aspects.
Yugle Rivas, family counselor, said the key to keeping children safe is to allow them access to TikTok, but with control and monitoring.
"When we talk about privacy, who has said that an 11-year-old child can have privacy in the sense that he doesn't have the maturity to set limits on his life and that's what parents are for," said the expert.
These are the basic rules that Yugle recommends:
“If your child wants a phone, you have to have restrictions and under these agreements he will have it, 'I must have a password, I will monitor who you talk to, the phone sleeps with me', because you should not allow him free access to talk to strangers , ”Said Rivas.
Another tip Marko gave was to show your son that you like what he does on the networks, so the little one will be open to share what he is doing and will not see this interaction as a review.
"Tell him he's cool , you're enjoying what he's doing, participate with them," said the influencer, who is also a parent.
Rivas said it is also a mistake to ban children over 10 from having a mobile device, especially if their friends already have one:
“If you do not allow it, you are going to limit a way of fitting in, because socially the boys of this generation, let's forget to compare our time that was another moment that did not condition, currently they are invited by social networks, they find out what it happens through social networks, if you don't allow it, it won't fit ”, Yugle
Marko stressed that a new obligation of parents is to be up to date and learn about the applications used by children, "today is a fundamental part of parenting."
See also:
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