What is Tiktok and is it safe?

Worried about teens using this social media app? Mum-of-two Andreina Cordani shares her advice on how to protect them

When the world went into lockdown last year, we found new ways of filling our time. Some started baking, others binged on Netflix and many, especially the under-25s, got into Tiktok, the social media app that allows users to create and share short video clips.

WHAT SHOULD I KNOW?

Like many social media apps, Tiktok says it monitors content on its network using a combination of artificial intelligence and more than 10,000 human moderators, removing some content and sorting the rest according to how age-appropriate it is.

However, your idea of what is appropriate may differ from Tiktok’s, and there’s no getting away from the fact that the platform features lots of sweary music and gyrating dances. If you do find something inappropriate, block and report the video by going to the video maker’s profile, clicking on the three dots at the top of the screen and selecting Report – teach your youngster how to do it, too.

‘The best thing you can do is talk to children about the dangers, but balance warnings with positive conversations, even if you have to feign interest,’ says psychologist Angharad Rudkin, co-author of What’s My Teenager Thinking?. ‘Put your child’s behaviour in the context of their offline life. I recommend the “granny rule”. Ask them: “If your granny saw that, would she be okay with it? If not, don’t put it up.”’

HOW CAN I PROTECT MY CHILD?

Setting your child’s app to Restricted Mode will help stop age-inappropriate videos from appearing. To do this, go to Digital Wellbeing in Settings and turn on Restricted Mode. You can set screen time limits here, too. Both settings are password-controlled, so your child can’t change them later.

Tiktok has recently added tools to its Family Pairing feature. You can now set your child’s account to Private (so only friends can see what they share), have more control over requests to follow them and prevent other users from commenting on their videos. You can also turn off the search function so children can’t look up content, hashtags or other users. To set up Family Pairing, download the app to your own phone and pair it with your teen’s app in Settings, Family Pairing.

The Girl Who… (Atom, £7.99) by Andreina Cordani is out now