TIKTOK: THE PARENTAL CONTROLS YOU SHOULD KNOW ABOUT

Here we discuss the parental controls available to help you keep your teenager out of harm’s way when it comes to TikTok and healthy digital boundaries.

TikTok is the latest social media platform to become embedded in the fabric of many teens’ lives. The company states that it believes it should bring joy and play a positive role in how people express themselves, discover ideas and connect. There is much debate around the dangers of TikTok, especially for younger users, but also around the opportunity it provides to discover new things. Whatever your personal parenting preferences are, it’s wise to be vigilant about your child’s use of this social media, guiding your teen towards forming healthy digital boundaries.

THE POWERFUL ALGORITHM

It’s good to remember that TikTok’s algorithm is designed to keep everyone coming back for more, feeding users a stream of content aimed at their specific personality. This is done by using each person’s usage data to detect their sense of humour, frame of mind, music taste and lots of other metrics. This means the content has a powerful effect on our psyche as it is tailored to our individual wants, meaning it can be particularly difficult to resist looking at.

DOPAMINE AND TIKTOK USE