TikTok has come under fire for inappropriate content and cyberbullying, not to mention its weak data security and addictive nature. Clearly, there are many risks in using TikTok.
Thankfully, there are also many ways to protect your child. For instance, TikTok’s Family Pairing feature allows you to link your TikTok account to your child’s so you can:
- Limit your child’s screen time.
- Limit who can send messages to your child.
- Manage their privacy and safety settings.
- Choose whether they can have a private or public account.
We also recommend using a parental control app like Bark to make your child’s TikTok experience more secure. Bark lets you regulate your child’s social media activities and screen time, plus sends you alerts if your kid encounters flagged content.
Keep reading for more information on the dangers of TikTok and how to improve the safety of TikTok for younger users.
No place on the internet is completely safe for children. However, the presence of cyberbullies, predators, and inappropriate content makes TikTok particularly dangerous for kids.
If left unsupervised, TikTok use is unsafe for kids. The only way to make TikTok kid-friendly is for parents to go over TikTok’s privacy and security settings. We provide detailed guides later in the article.
Parents should also consider using a parental control app like Bark. Bark makes your child’s online experience safer by enabling parents to set screen time limits and even monitor TikTok messages (on Android).
Why is TikTok Inappropriate and Unsafe for Kids?
Research shows that almost 80% of Gen Z users find TikTok to be addictive. This makes exposure to TikTok’s inappropriate content more difficult to avoid.
Below, we discuss the dangers of TikTok in detail.
1. Tiktok is full of inappropriate content
According to research, TikTok users as young as 13 years old get recommended content relating to eating disorders, self-harm, and suicide.
There are also thousands of videos that use songs with explicit language or that feature sexual content. In fact, Wired reports that many adult content creators use TikTok to promote their work.
While ‘TikTok for Younger Users’ — a version of the social media app for users under 13 — filters out mature content, some inappropriate content still makes it through.
And although users can block and report accounts or comments, critics say TikTok is usually slow to address reports. TikTok has also been criticized for failing to ban accounts that make sexually explicit comments on children’s accounts.
2. TikTok has negative effects on mental health
Social media addiction can take a toll on teens’ mental health. A study performed by China’s Southwest University found that TikTok addiction is strongly correlated to depression and anxiety, as well as a decrease in short-term memory.
Kids can also fall into the trap of building their self-image around the number of likes, followers, or comments they receive online. This can lead to mental health issues like anxiety, eating disorders, and depression.
3. Predators and cyberbullying
Like other social media platforms, TikTok allows commenting and direct messaging. If your child’s account is public, strangers can view their content and send them messages.
If parents are not careful, using TikTok can open children up to sexual harassment and grooming by online predators. In 2022, a 36-year-old man was sent to prison after sending sexual messages to young girls on TikTok.
Cyberbullies also abound on TikTok, “trolling” their targets and making rude or hateful comments on their videos. TikTok allows users to approve comments before they are visible to the public, but this doesn’t keep the users from reading them.
4. Questionable data policies
Is TikTok trustworthy when it comes to data collection and data sharing? Unfortunately, the answer seems to be a resounding “no.”
TikTok has faced lots of criticism for the way it handles user data. In 2019, the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) fined TikTok $5.7 million for collecting the names, email addresses, and location data of children under 13.
The data TikTok collects can be used to create detailed profiles and deliver targeted ads to users, including children. Data could also be shared with third parties, and there’s the ever-present possibility that it can fall into the wrong hands or end up on the dark web as part of a breach.
Bonus Tip:
A great way to protect your child’s data is by installing a quality VPN, such as NordVPN, on their device. This will protect their data while browsing the web and using TikTok (as long as they’re not logged in).
5. Hyperconsumerism
Advertising is rife on TikTok. Many TikTok videos are created specifically to market particular products or services to kids and teens. These videos can influence kids to buy or try these products to be “cool” or “fit in.”
In a complaint filed with the European Commission in 2021, the European Consumer Organization (BEUC) accused TikTok of “forced consent” and said the app failed to protect children from “hidden advertising.”
TikTok’s in-app currency, known as TikTok Coins, can also pose a problem. Many famous TikTokers host competitions to see which followers can give them the most expensive “gift.” As a result, kids and teens can be manipulated into spending money to connect with their favorite creators.
Note that many of these gifts aren’t cheap. These are the prices of some of the five most expensive gifts on TikTok:
- TikTok Universe: 34,999 TikTok coins
- Lion: 29,999 TikTok coins
- Rocket: 20,000 TikTok coins
- Planet: 15,000 TikTok coins
- Interstellar: 10,000 TikTok coins
For reference, one US dollar currently buys you about 215 TikTok coins.
6. Dangerous challenges
While TikTok challenges can be fun, they can put kids and teens at risk. For instance, the “blackout challenge” — where users choked themselves out till they went unconscious — caused at least 20 deaths between mid-2021 and the end of 2022.
There have been many other equally dangerous challenges on TikTok, including one that involves eating laundry detergent. Teens are more susceptible to social pressures and are therefore more likely to partake in extreme challenges for the validation of their peers.
Top 6 Security Tips for Keeping Kids Safe on TikTok
TikTok isn’t the safest platform for children, but it can still provide educational content and be a good outlet for creativity. The best way to ensure that TikTok is safe for your child is to follow the tips below.
1. Optimize your kid’s TikTok privacy settings
TikTok has built-in privacy settings and parental controls that you can use to limit and monitor your kids’ activities on TikTok. You can find these on the “Settings and privacy” page.
Generally, you want to limit your kid’s account to only friends and families. This will help keep them away from dangerous strangers. Later in the article, we provide detailed step-by-step guides on how to navigate these settings.
2. Get to know the app
It’s important that parents also create a TikTok account and familiarize themselves with the software. Using the app also allows you to keep up with TikTok trends and speak to your child about dangerous TikTok challenges to avoid. Ask your teen about the content creators they like and follow them.
Here’s what we suggest you pay attention to on the app:
- Music choices, which are often based on popular music and which may have curse words or lyrics inappropriate for your child
- Filters that change your child’s appearance can affect their self-esteem and body image
- Top influencers that your child follows on the app
3. Use a parental control app
Parental control apps aren’t the end-all-be-all when it comes to protecting your children online. You’ll still have to make an active effort yourself to keep your child safe on TikTok and elsewhere. However, a solid parental control app like Bark can definitely help.
What’s great about Bark is that it automatically monitors the private messages your child sends and receives on TikTok (on Android). TikTok’s Family Pairing setting, while great, doesn’t offer this functionality.
Bark also has screen time management features that are more advanced than those offered by TikTok. You can try this feature out and more by taking advantage of Bark’s seven-day free trial.
4. Use TikTok without creating an account
It’s entirely possible to use TikTok without an account. This just means you won’t be able to create videos yourself or interact with anyone else’s videos. In short, you’ll only be able to watch others’ content.
Granted, your child might not enjoy this as much as creating their own content. However, they will be much safer without creating their own videos and interacting with other users. This will protect them both from child predators and cyberbullying while still letting them keep up with the latest trends.
In order to access TikTok without an account, just tell your child to visit tiktok.com on a web browser rather than downloading and using the app.
5. Use a VPN with TikTok’s browser version
If your child is using TikTok on a browser, a VPN will limit TikTok’s ability to gather data on your child.
A VPN further improves your child’s privacy by hiding their real IP address. Instead of your child’s IP address (which is tied to their real-time location), TikTok will only be able to see the VPN’s IP address.
To keep you and your family safe, we recommend NordVPN. This VPN offers plenty of servers to cover your child’s IP address and keep them anonymous. It also offers military-grade 256-bit encryption to secure your child’s data.
6. Talk to your kids about your TikTok safety concerns
Talk to your kids about your Tiktok app safety concerns, like the dangers of having a public profile or talking to strangers. Here are some tips:
- Let them know how you plan to monitor their activities on TikTok: As parents, it’s our job to help teens navigate the web safely. Explain to them that it’ll be more fun if they don’t need to worry about inappropriate TikTok users or hateful messages or comments on their videos.
- Tell them you know how easy it is to get addicted to social media, and make sure they have other fun activities to do. Research shows that time offline and outdoors improves mental health.
- Remind your teen that likes and followers don’t define them: Boosting your teen’s self-esteem and talking things through will help them build the resilience they need to deal with issues that come up on TikTok and other parts of the web.
- Talk to them often about social media: Talk about the good, the bad, and the ugly. Make videos together, be silly, and don’t judge them. This way, if they experience something unpleasant, they’ll feel comfortable telling you about it.
Bark: The Best Parental Control App for TikTok
Bark is an outstanding parental control app, especially if your child uses TikTok. The app is not just able to monitor in-app TikTok messages (on Android) but can also monitor WhatsApp and iPhone messages, in case your child takes a conversation off TikTok.
Are you worried your child might meet up with strangers on TikTok in real life? Bark can track your child’s location. Better yet: it will even send you alerts when they leave or arrive at locations specified by you.
If your child is older than 13 and doesn’t need your permission to use TikTok for more than 60 minutes, Bark’s time monitoring feature will come in handy. It will tell you how much time your child is spending on their phone and on TikTok specifically.
How to Set Up a Safe TikTok Account for Your Kids
Denying your kid access to TikTok may backfire, as they may end up using the social media platform behind your back without adult supervision. Instead, we recommend either looking into TikTok alternatives or guiding kids and teens to use TikTok safely.
However, if you do decide to allow them on TikTok, we recommend taking the following steps when creating a new account to ensure your children’s safety:
- Download and open the TikTok app from Apple’s App Store or Google’s Play Store.
- Select one of the account creation options. We recommend using your phone or email, as either is the most secure option. We strongly advise against signing up using another app, like Instagram or Google.
- You will have to enter your child’s birthday. This is to verify that the user is at least 13 years of age. Note that TikTok doesn’t employ any age verification method. This is another reason it’s good to get involved with your child’s TikTok journey.
- Enter an email address or phone number. We recommend creating an email address specifically for social media accounts. Refrain from using your child’s real name to protect their identity.
- Create a secure password with a combination of numbers and letters.
- Verify the email address or phone number by entering the code you receive.
- Let your child pick a few interests — this will determine the kind of videos they see on the app. You can also choose to skip this step.
- Click Start Watching to complete the account setup process.
Next, you need to go over TikTok’s privacy and security settings to ensure that your kids are safe on TikTok. We provide a detailed guide in the section.
How to Set Up TikTok Parental Controls and Privacy Settings
Within TikTok’s security settings, there are several privacy settings and parental controls to help parents create a safer experience for their children. Parental controls require a passcode. This ensures that children can’t change the settings.
To find these settings, go to the TikTok homepage > Profile icon > Privacy.
Discoverability
The options under Discoverability have to do with how people can find you (or how you find them) on TikTok. We suggest making the following changes:
- Private account: Turn on this option if your child is under 18. It ensures that only users that have been approved can follow their account and watch their videos. Click the video below to learn how to set this up.
- Suggest your account to others: If you turn on any of these options, TikTok will store additional data, including your child’s phone number, Facebook information, contact details, and data on their internet activities. Teens aged 13 to 15 will have the setting turned off by default, and we recommend keeping it that way. To turn it off for other accounts, follow the steps in this video.
- Sync contacts and Facebook friends: This will give TikTok access to the contacts on your child’s device or Facebook. We recommend turning this off, as show in the video above.
Personalization and data
The “Personalization and data” section determines how TikTok uses your teen’s data to deliver targeted advertisements. If these options are activated, TikTok and its third-party business partners will track your child’s internet activity to show them relevant ads.
We recommend turning off these settings as shown in the video below.
Aside from turning off personalized ads, it’s also important to make sure TikTok doesn’t get access to your location, so they cannot use that to recommend videos, either.
Interaction
One of the best ways to keep your kids safe on TikTok is to reduce their contact with strangers and harmful content. TikTok’s interaction features determine how others can interact with your child on the platform.
- Downloads: If you made your child’s TikTok account private, this is automatically turned off, so others cannot download their videos. You can also turn this off manually under “Downloads.” Here’s how you do that.
- Comments: You can choose who can comment on your child’s videos, approve comments before they become visible, and filter out offensive words. Teens aged 13 to 15 can only choose to permit comments from “Friends” or “No one.”
- Mentions and Tags: You can control who can tag and mention you in videos, comments, descriptions, and more. You can change this to “Followers that you follow back” or “No one,” as shown in this video.
- Following List, Duet, Stitch: TikTok lets you choose who can see your followers and the videos you’ve liked. You can also control who can duet your videos (show your content side-by-side with theirs) and stitch your videos (add your video to theirs). To control how people interact with your page and content, change your privacy settings to “Friends,” “Followers,” or “Only Me,” as shown in the video below.
- Direct Messages: You choose who can send your teen direct messages. The options are “Friends” or “No one.” Depending on your teen’s age, direct messaging may not be available.
Security
Under “Security,” TikTok users can run a report for security alerts, see what devices their account is logged in on, and manage third-party apps. Any authorized third-party app connected to your child’s TikTok account can access their location, contacts, camera, photos, and calendar.
Two-step verification adds an extra layer of security that prevents others from logging into your child’s TikTok account if their password is compromised. Your child can select a method to verify their account — text, email, or password.
Screen Time
Screen Time lets you manage your child’s screen time on TikTok. You can choose a 40, 60, 90, or 120-minute daily time limit or select a custom limit. When your child reaches their limit, they must enter a passcode to keep scrolling.
To set screen time limits and content filters for your child, go to Settings and Privacy > Screen time > Daily Screen time > Edit daily screen time.
Restricted Mode
Under “Content preferences”, another setting within Settings and privacy, you’ll find Restricted Mode. Turning on this algorithm-based feature limits mature or otherwise inappropriate content from popping up on your child’s “For You” page.
To enable Restricted Mode, you need to set a four-digit passcode.
Family Pairing
Family Pairing gives you more control over the privacy settings of your child’s account. To activate Family Pairing, you’ll need to connect your TikTok account to your child’s account through a QR code. All you need is a TikTok account and your teen’s phone to complete this process.
- Under “Content & Display,” go to Family Pairing.
- When prompted, choose Parent.
- Follow the prompt and scan the QR code to link both accounts. Once you’ve done that, you can control some settings on your teen’s account.
TikTok permissions
While TikTok allows you to change many of its privacy settings for the better, there is a different place to go to when you want to make sure TikTok’s data collection is limited. Your own phone’s settings give you even more options.
Apps might request permission to access your contacts, microphone, or camera, but you can easily limit this by following the steps in the video below. Do keep in mind that your child won’t be able to film or record TikTok videos if you don’t give the app access to their microphone and camera.
How to Block and Report TikTok Content
Another feature worth knowing is how to report and block harmful content, comments, or users. When you report harmful content, it gets flagged by TikTok, reviewed, and, if deemed inappropriate, removed from the platform.
How to report a video or comment
- Tap and hold a video or comment, and a pop-up will appear.
- Select Report.
- Select a reason.
How to block or report an account
- Go to the profile page of the account you want to flag.
- Click on the little arrow next to “Follow” used for messaging.
- Click on the three dots at the top right corner to find the “Report” and “Block” options.
- Choose to report or block the account.
How Does TikTok Protect Kids?
Technically, kids under 13 can’t sign up for a regular TikTok account. However, TikTok knows kids can falsify their birthdates to sign up anyway. To cater to a younger audience, the company created “TikTok for Younger Users,” which is essentially a “TikTok for kids” version of the app.
TikTok for Younger Users was created in compliance with the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA) and the Federal Trade Commission’s (FTC) guidance for mixed-audience apps.
How does ‘TikTok for Younger Users’ work?
TikTok for Younger Users (TYU) is similar to the regular TikTok app but with additional privacy features. Here are some differences:
- TYU Users can’t publicly share personal information, including their videos and profile details.
- TikTok collects fewer user data from the TYU app, though it’s still a significant amount of data: personal information (users’ names, birth dates, usernames, passwords), device information (IP address, browser details, location), and app activity data (time spent on the app, videos watched, and general usage information).
- Users of TYU can’t send direct messages to other users of the app. This serves to combat cyberbullying and inappropriate interactions within the app.
- The daily screen time for TYU users is only 60 minutes. A parent or guardian needs to enter a code if a child wishes to use TYU for more than 60 minutes.
Is TikTok safe for 12-year-olds, for instance, thanks to this new design? Probably not. We still recommend supervising your child’s usage of the app. Alternatively, there are many great social media apps designed specifically for younger users, like PopJam.
What data does TikTok collect?
TikTok collects a lot of user data by default. The company shares this data with third parties like business partners, service providers, and advertisers.
The following is what TikTok collects about its users on the regular TikTok app and TikTok for Younger Users, according to the company’s privacy policy.
| Data TikTok collects | Regular users (aged 13+) | Younger users (13 years or below) |
|---|---|---|
| Login information | Username and password | Username and password |
| Personal information | Date of birth, proof of identity or age* | Date of birth |
| Contact information | Email and/or telephone number | Email and/or telephone number |
| Profile information | Profile photo, profile video, and other information disclosed on the user’s profile | — |
| Device information | IP address, user agent, mobile carrier, time zone settings, identifiers for advertising purposes, model of your device, the device system, network type, device IDs, screen resolution and operating system, app and file names and types, keystroke patterns or rhythms, battery state, audio settings, and connected audio devices | Device ID, IP address, web browser type, and version |
| Location | Location information based on SIM card and/or IP address, precise location data (such as GPS)* | Country-level location |
| App activity | Preferences, list of followers, and list of following | Video watches, time in the app, and general usage data |
| User content | Photographs, video and audio files users upload or create, comments and live streams, clipboard data* | — |
| Contacts | Phone contact list, Facebook contact list | — |
| In-app purchases | Purchases made, date and time when purchases were made, and amount spent | — |
| Payment information | Payment card numbers or third-party payment information (such as PayPal) | — |
* This data is collected with additional user permission or under specific circumstances. For instance, proof of identity is required when verifying users applying for a Pro Account.
What is TikTok and How Does It Work?
TikTok is a hugely popular social platform that specializes in short-form videos. Users can record, edit, and share videos with either their friends or the public. TikTok users can also livestream and collaborate with other digital creators through “Stitches,” “Duets,” and more.
The good news is that all of the above interactions with your child’s account can be regulated. You can enable or disable certain safety features, as we explained above. Nevertheless, it’s not hard to see how these interactions can open up your child to bullying and predators.
Final Thoughts: Is TikTok Safe for Kids and Teens?
TikTok can be fun, but it can also be dangerous for your child’s digital wellbeing. We’ve seen that the platform can open up kids to cyberbullying, stalking, sexual abuse, and mental health problems.
It’s important to ensure your child is using TikTok safely. To this end, you should use TikTok’s privacy and security settings properly and also use additional safety measures like Bark.
Another key element in digital security is understanding the risks and maintaining open communication with your kids about your concerns. To learn more about online safety for your kids, read our guides to keeping children safe online:
- Internet Safety for Kids: How to Keep Children Safe Online
- Is Likee Safe for Kids? A Security Review of the TikTok Clone
- Is Facebook Messenger Kids Safe?
- Is YouTube Kids Safe?
Do you have questions about how to make TikTok safe for kids? Check out the FAQs below for answers. If you don’t find the answer to the question on your mind, leave us a comment.
The minimum age for TikTok users is 13 years old. However, children under 13 can use TikTok for Younger Users — a version of the app that offers a similar but limited experience with additional safety and privacy features.
Yes. TikTok for Younger Users was created for kids 13 years old and below. The app collects less data than the regular TikTok app — but it still collects users’ names, birth dates, usernames, and passwords.
Many of the videos on TikTok may be inappropriate for younger viewers as they contain offensive language, suggestive dancing or clothing, and hurtful comments.
While it can be dangerous, banning your child from using TikTok is counterproductive as they can access it behind your back. Instead, set the ground rules and guide them to use the app safely.
