TikTok Changing the Game: Is it Safe?
Creativity is what defines the world of TikTok to 10-year-old Katherine Zaldana. She doesn’t post consistently, but when she does, her posts include comedy skits, dancing and online gaming videos, such as Roblox.
She gets inspiration from videos that are posted through YouTube. And when she is done with her homework and schooling as a fifth grader, her days consist of editing her videos and adding them onto her TikTok page for the world to view.
TikTok, the Chinese video-sharing social media platform, has been a sensational craze where pre-teens and adults alike have become obsessed with the app.
In 2013, an American social media short-form video service called “Vine” was created. This platform consisted of six- or seven-second-long looped video clips where users could do comedic skits, dance, and entertain their viewers.
Big names such as King Bach, Lele Pons and Logan Paul got their start on the platform, ultimately resulting in a huge following. The following year, a Shanghai-based social media platform known as “Musical.ly” launched their application, where just like Vine, users are able to create short-clipped videos. But this time, many of those that were created were lip-sync videos.
In January 2017, Vine was discontinued, resulting in the platform shutting down after four years. As for Musical.ly, TikTok’s parent company, ByteDance, spent $1 billion in purchasing the company. With the merging of the company, TikTok was created, resulting in over 315 million downloads.
The platform has consisted of trends that include dance, pranks, and narrative storytelling, which grab the viewer’s attention.
Though the platform has taken the world by storm with its quirky trends, serious and political issues have made its way into the videos, starting a conversation among young adults. During the Black Lives Matter protests this past June, videos from not only the United States, but also other parts of the world, surfaced on the pages of the site.
Creators from all different age groups posted a variety of videos, showing protesters marching throughout downtowns, while also revealing the violence that ensued among civilians and police. This has also lead to a calling for the platform to be taken down from application stores in the United States.
President Donald Trump’s administration has spoken about banning the social media platform due to national security risk. The administration has been in talks with Microsoft to try to buy the platform so it could stay in the United States, yet there has been no negotiation.
This ongoing battle between TikTok and the Trump administration has been going on since this past summer. According to The Verge, TikTok has tried to negotiate and contact the administration but no word has been said from them, leaving the negotiation and banning in limbo.
Security and safety is the top priority for those who use social media. Terms and conditions are prompted once an individual decides to create an account and overtime, they are updated and notifies the user via email.
In most cases, when it comes to downloading social media, Google Play and Apple’s App Store verifies if the user is of age. Most social networking applications are for those who are 12 years and over. Even though Katherine is not old enough to download the platform on her cellphone, she uses it via her mother’s phone for supervision.
According to Katherine’s mother, Vera, her reason for supervision is due to the inappropriate content that tends to appear in the platform. “It has adult content that shows up on the ‘For You’ page and I don’t want Katherine to see that. You can’t control what shows up.”
Other than the platform almost being banned by the U.S. government, controversy from among well-known TikTok users has spread much debate in whether the platform is turning the once innocent platform into something much darker.
Charli D’Amelio, a 16-year-old dancer and content creator, has been under fire due to multiple problems, including her vaping habits and her most recent YouTube video with her behavior towards private Chef Aaron May. Though many have come to D’Amelio’s defense against the negativity that has come through the internet, there have been concerns that young content creators with large followings may influence their younger fans.
Katherine’s content is user-friendly and she has been on the platform since March of this year. She found the platform while scrolling through YouTube videos. “I wanted to do TikTok because I wanted to have more creativity and just make funny videos,” she said.
Generation Z have become the largest age group to have evolved with the platform. Children younger than Katherine have taken the platform and produce content that has been shared by millions. According to Wallaroo, the platform has about 850 million monthly active users. The app has been downloaded over 2 billion times worldwide and 32.5% of users are between the ages 10 to 19 years of age.
Though many know and are interested in making connections by using the platform, there are those who have no interest in the platform. Trevor Spridgen, a 34-year-old artist, doesn’t see TikTok as something he can get into it.
“I don’t like making videos and I don’t really care about it as of right now. Many of those around me aren’t into it either but if people enjoy it, then it’s fine by me.”
Spridgen does illustrations, builds gaming computers from scratch and outdoor hiking/camping. He admits that while he uses Facebook to stay connected with family and friends, he tends to stay away from social media as much as he can.
“I rarely go on my Facebook and other that, I don’t use Twitter or any other social apps. I enjoy watching and learning from YouTube videos when I want to create stuff but I rather stay offline when it comes to anything social.”
According to Katherine’s mother, the young child will be sticking with TikTok under her guidance until she’s a little bit older.
Katherine said she he hopes that the platform will be here to stay. “I hope TikTok won’t go away because that’s where a lot of people post creative videos for people to enjoy.”
