TikTok is now a well-known phenomenon, especially among young people. The app offers the possibility to make short videos of 3 to 15 seconds, in which you show something funny or clever. We dive a little deeper into this sensation.
TikTok is often compared to Vine, but actually it is the successor to Musical.ly. This was a video streaming and sharing app that allowed you to share videos to the world in just 15 seconds. It had more than 100 million users, some of which have become very famous. However, that celebrity often skips over to other social media, causing Musical.ly to lose stars to YouTube, for example.
It was Musical.ly
In August 2018, Musical.ly acquired by the Chinese ByteDance, which transferred the accounts all to the new TikTok. TikTok actually does little else than Musical.ly. You make videos of 15 seconds with it and it is extremely popular: it now has more than 300 million users who are active monthly, although there is also talk of more than 500 million monthly active users. The biggest difference with Musical.ly is that TikTok is no longer just about music.
It is a very creative platform, which is mainly about showing you something special, funny or clever in a few seconds. That can be a kind of sketch between two lovers, but also a video of a woman who can play hula hoop with 100 hoops at the same time. And so also the aforementioned short music videos in which a user plays and dances.
Of course it is not so much the fact that you can make videos of 15 seconds, because that is also possible with your camera of your phone. The point is that the app offers you all the tools you need to make it as fun as possible: it contains thousands of music and you can (just like in Snapchat) add cool filters over it. And that attracts a very young target group.
The social aspect
That all sounds pretty friendly and harmless, but it doesn’t stop there. What makes TikTok so popular is the social aspect. You don’t necessarily make videos in the app that you then have to share on other social media: you are supposed to stay within the TikTok app. You can respond to other videos there with, for example, a reaction video.
When TikTok was just starting to take off, the platform’s privacy and security was in bad shape. Initially, you could only make your videos completely private (so you could only watch them), or make it public for everyone. However, in July 2018, TikTok made some tweaks, making private means that only followers you approved can view the videos. Management for parents has also been added and the privacy settings have been expanded with regard to sending private messages.
Privacy settings
So, TikTok added some privacy settings a few years ago, but by default your videos are shared with everyone and your profile is public. So you will have to dive into the settings yourself to change this. To do this, go to in the settings of the app Privacyand put only friends can contact me directlyOn. Continue too hide location information and private account so that your privacy is even better guaranteed.
Although TikTok is age 12 and older in some countries and rated 16 and older in other countries, younger children will not be stopped from using the app. TikTok has said that accounts of people under those ages will be deleted, but that’s hard to verify, of course. Still, the App Store It is not without reason that the app may contain slightly sexual content and exposure, for example due to challenges in which young girls have to take off their clothes.
While most users post fun, harmless content on the platform, there are certainly dangers for young children. In addition to the problem that young children often cannot properly assess the consequences of their videos and that this may indicate where children live or go to school, several situations have been reported where pedophiles have wandered on TikTok. In addition, many young people imitate things they see in video clips and that can sometimes be very sexy. That’s why India even has TikTok banned.
You are supposed to stay within the Tiktok app
Not suitable for young children
TikTok is not suitable for young children. It is not without reason that it has an age recommendation of 12 years and older. Nevertheless, it is basically no more dangerous than, for example, Instagram or Snapchat: videos can be uploaded there with slightly too explicit content and it is possible to react to each other. The best advice for parents of children who still want to use TikTok is to allow it or not, or to keep a grip on the privacy settings. You can also become friends with your child on the platform to see what is being posted. In any case, as with internet use in general, it is important to keep talking about it.
That’s how TikTok has become so big
While TikTok is big all over the world, it also has a lot of local competitions and challenges, which appeals to people to show the world where they come from. The app also wants to appeal to users even more personally by giving them recommendations based on their use of TikTok. That is what makes TikTok popular and loved, which is why celebrities also get involved. For example, the American talk show host Jimmy Fallon has a partnership with the app, in which he writes out challenges. For example, the #TumbleweedChallenge is his idea: people have to pretend to roll by like a steppen roller. It sounds crazy, but it had more than 10 million responses in a week.
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