Navigating the digital world with your child

Parent Guidance for setting up Tik Tok Parental Controls

TikTok is a short form video app. When used correctly it can be a place for fun and positive content created by real people around the world.

TikTok’s minimum user age is 13 – and it’s important that your child provides their real date of birth. If your child provides a false date of birth they will be targeted with content which is not age appropriate. Tik Tok do suspend some apps if they believe that the user is under 13 (accounts can be reported as such) although it is worth noting that TikTok was fined 12.7 million pounds by the U.K. in April 2023 by the Information Commissioner's Office (ICO) for using the personal data of children without parental consent and other violations of data protection mandates. How Tik Tok decides what your child will see and be exposed to on its platform The Tik Tok algorithm has a ‘For You’ feed. The algorithmwill drop things into this feed account. These are not always appropriate for your child to see (particularly if they have lied about their age). If your child pauses as they are scrolling or like the account, the algorithmwill now push more of the same content into your child’s account feeds thus creating an echo chamber of what your child will see and be exposed to. It’s worth checking the ‘For You’ feed regularly as it will give you a real sense of what your child has been engaging with. There is a delicate balance between privacy and secrecy. Young people can consume content compulsively and they might not realise it is harmful! It is normal for parents to sit in their living rooms and know exactly where their child is – upstairs in their bedrooms – but have absolutely no idea who they are with online, what content they are consuming and what effect that might have on them. For further insight here, it’s worth watching ‘Capture, who’s looking after the children’. A 14-minute film starring JodieWhittaker (Dr Who) and Paul Ready (Motherland) which looks at online harm, regulation and parental responsibility. You can find it on YouTube. Tik Tok Family Pairing Tik Tok does provide meaningful ways to set guidelines with your children- it is just a bit of a hunt to find them! The Family Pairing features let parents link their TikTok account to their child’s account to enable a variety of content, privacy, and wellbeing settings. If your child is on Tik Tok we would encourage you to join and discuss the Family Pairing features with your child, It is important that you talk to your child about what they are seeing on their feeds, what they are interested in and what their feed is providing them.

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