How to keep your kids safe on TikTok

Tikok is the latest social media platform to take the world by storm and one huge concern from parents is how to keep your kids safe on TikTok.

In a nutshell, it's a video-sharing app that allows users to create and share short-form videos on any topic.

Tiktok is the social media platform of choice for Gen Z, and that poses a challenge for parents; how to keep them safe online.

The good news is there are a few basic things a parent can do.

How to keep your kids safe on TikTok

1. Check your child’s account details: TikTok segregates account functionality by age. The basic level is 13 to 15, while over 16s have more privileges and over 18s can do, see, send and receive almost anything. If you have a 13-year-old who has faked their age and set it to 16 or 18, they may experience inappropriate content. So, it's vital that you check the age setting they have registered.
2. Family pairing: As a parent, you can link your TikTok account to your child’s or teenager’s, letting you control a lot of the content and privacy settings. This obviously means you have to set up an account yourself.
3. Setting accounts to private: Where possible, negotiate with your child or teen to make their account private by default. This gives a layer of protection to your child interacting with strangers online or in private messaging. This might be harder than it sounds, though, if your child says that he or she wants to amass lots of followers.
4. Control direct messages: Even if your child persuades you that “all their friends” have public accounts, you can still insist that they disable their direct messages, either to friends or altogether.
5. Restricted mode: This is a setting that adds extra protection to what a TikTok user sees and experiences. It works in conjunction with age settings to try to keep any kind of mature content off your child’s screen.