MILLIONS of parents across the UK say they are happy to let their kids, some as young as THREE, scroll through the videos on TikTok.
But do you really know what your kids are looking at?
The popular app, which has been downloaded over 1.5billion times worldwide, looks innocent enough at first glance, with cute kitten clips and dance challenges.
But swiping through the videos can take you to a much darker place, with footage of drugs, knives, self-harm and highly sexualised kids showing up on the ‘For you’ menu.
More than a quarter of parents admit they are clueless about the fastest growing social media platform so we showed a compilation of some of the more sinister footage we found to a panel of mums as part of The Sun’s TikTok Time Bomb series.
These mums let their Tik-Tok-addicted kids, aged between 9 and 12, have free reign on the app.
Lana Misan from Stanmore, mum to Cara, 13, and Luke, 12, thought the app was “pretty innocent” and, compared to Snapchat and Instagram was "the least problematic" social media site.
But how would they react to some of the more shocking material of violence, porn, animal cruelty and violence we'd come across?
Explicit sex videos are stripping kids of their innocence
Arriving at the studio, the six women begin chatting about their kids.
“My children come home from school and rush their homework so they can get on TikTok. And they are completely obsessed, if I'm honest," says Katy Levine, from Borehamwood, who has two daughters, Lucie, 12 and Orli, nine.
Suzanne Baum, from London, has three boys aged 19, 17 and ten, and says, “My youngest Jake is on TikTok pretty much all the time. As far as I know, he's just doing songs and dances and looking at the content that his friends put up.”
But their smiles turn to horror as our video gallery starts.
There are several clips of scantily-clad girls twerking, one girl on all fours 'trapped' under a desk in lingerie and many references to sexual acts.
But one shocking video that made all six of the mums flinch involved young boys boasting about “which fingers” they used in a sexual act to the Lil’ Wil rap song with lyrics, "Bust that p**** open".
'It paints picture of women as objects'
Lisa gasped and covered her mouth while Julia Shields from Yatton near Bristol and mum to 12-year-old Ally, looked utterly disgusted.
In an acted clip, a young girl tells her mum her dad performed a sex act, which draws a sharp gasp and a few “Oh my Gods” from the mums.
Mum-of-four Julia, says: “I'm really shocked by the pornographic content.
“That's the main thing that worries me, as the mother of a boy, because I think it paints a picture of women being objects rather than someone that you would respect.
“The one where they're talking about ‘how many fingers do you use?’ That really concerns me.”
TikTok Time Bomb
TikTok has spread like digital wildfire, snapping up over 1.5 billion users since its global launch three years ago — including millions in the UK.
On the surface, the world's fastest growing social media platform shows short clips of lip-syncing to songs or showing off dance moves but there’s a far more sinister side.
It’s become a magnet for paedophiles as well as a hotbed for violent and extremist content, with TikTok predators exploiting the platform's young user base and lax security to prey on the vulnerable.
We've seen kids as young as eight being groomed on TikTok, while other creeps take advantage of young girls posting sexualised content of themselves on the platform.
And that's especially worrying on a site which is attracting millions more children every year, with 53 per cent of kids now owning a smartphone by the age of seven.
That's why we launched our TikTok Time Bomb series — to make sure parents are aware of the risks their kids are being exposed to, and what they can do to better protect them.
Everyone agrees that social media can be a force for good, but it has to be used the right way and with proper controls in place.
We want TikTok to better moderate its content so that it’s not being left to kids to protect themselves online.
My son learnt word 'crackhead'
But for other mums it's the violent scenes that cause the most concern.
One, captioned “knife training”, showed a lad throwing a 10-inch carving knife about a kitchen while another stabs at the screen with a long blade.
“I found those shocking because of what we hear in the news today about children being radicalised and how easy it is now, because they have access into people's lives,” says Claire.
“They could easily be talking to somebody on the internet that they don't know and it's really worrying.
“If you get a child that's vulnerable, falling out with a friend or struggling at school, and they're in a very low place, it doesn't take much for someone to creep in.
Londoner Lisa Nutt, whose 12-year-old son Neo loves the app, adds: “It’s really worrying because they think that's cool and they might then try to recreate some of the videos to get likes.”
Julia agrees: “The 'knife training' video was disturbing. Knife crime is a big issue at the moment and they they're making it look like it's something really cool.”
Lisa was worried by videos showing a zombified man, apparently on drugs and a Henry Hoover snorting a line of whiter powder.
"If my son is playing video game he'll say to his mates, 'You're a crackhead' – now I know where he's getting it from," she says. "I'm worried Neo's going down that wormhole."
Self-harming video 'could be a trigger'
A clip of a girl – who looks no older than 10 – showing an apparent self-harming scar on her arm, struck a chord with mum Claire.
“That really upset me,” she says. “She looked very young and if you've got a child who isn't in a great place, where do they learn to start self-harming? They’ve seen something online that triggered something in them and gave them the idea and that worries me.”
Lana adds: “I know there are suicide and self-harming sites out there but I didn’t associate any of that with TikTok.”
Turning away in horror at puppy slapping
A cruel trend on the site sees pet owners slapping dogs while singing If You’re Happy And You Know It Clap Your Hands.
The clip our panel watched was of a clearly distressed puppy being held by one person as another smacked it around the head.
“They all shocked me but the one that I really hated was the dog being hit,” says Lana. “That was absolutely unacceptable.”
Claire was visibly upset by the clip, turning her face away.
“The dog one made me wince,” she says. “I couldn't even watch it.”
Dancing on car bonnets at traffic lights is new Tik Tok dare
Another disturbing aspect of TikTok is the viral challenges which encourage youngsters to risk life and limb in the name of ‘likes.’
Our compilation included one where two girls danced in the middle of a busy road and boasted “we got hit by a car doing this so make us famous.”
Claire says: “My younger daughter, Orli, would probably do something very silly like that for the likes, because it's all about being popular.
"She wouldn’t realise how dangerous or how serious that is and that’s really scary.”
Lisa says son Neo had showed her an even more worrying challenge just that morning.
“It was a TikTok dare with a boy dancing on somebody's car bonnet when it stopped at the traffic lights. Then he got off the car, but the driver got out and then floored him.
“My son showed it to me like it was nothing. The more they see these things the more desensitised they are and they think that's normal.”
Take control of TikTok – change these settings now
Parents should do the following immediately…
Go private:
- Head into Settings > Privacy and Safety and look for the Discoverability heading at the top.
- Under that you'll see a setting called Private Account. Toggle this on.
- TikTok recommends your page to lots of other users to improve video circulation.
- Switch the setting off and the account will no longer be recommended to other users.
Shut out weirdos:
- In Privacy and Safety > Safety, you can prevent other users from interacting with you.
- Most of the settings are on Everyone by default, but can be changed to Friends or Off.
- You can prevent interactions on comments, Duets, Reacts, users seeing which videos you've liked, and also messages.
Restricted Mode ON:
- Restricted Mode tries to limit age-inappropriate content from appearing for children.
- It's not perfect, and works through using computer-scanning systems – so some dodgy content will inevitably be missed.
- It's also possible to set a passcode to prevent your child from changing this setting later on.
- You'll find this in Settings > Digital Wellbeing > Screen Time Management.
Family Safety Mode:
- This setting lets you assign accounts as 'Parent' or 'Teen', giving you remote control over a child's TikTok access.
- You can set watch time limits, exclude inappropriate content and limit who can send messages.
- It's possible to do this from your own smartphone, so you can make sure your child is as protected as possible from anywhere.
- This setting is in Settings > Digital Wellbeing > Family Safe Mode.
Upset mums call for age restrictions
All six mums were shocked by what they saw and vowed to either talk to their children or police their viewing on the site from now on.
“I found that upsetting,” admits Suzanne. “My 10 year old is still quite immature and, in some ways, vulnerable.
“The thought he might be accessing and watching this sort of thing has made me realise I'm going to go straight home and re-look at how he uses it."
Suzanne believes kids shouldn’t be banned from the site but instead, an age restriction should exist.
“Perhaps if you clarify the user's age, you could restrict the viewing or the content that's available across the board. So if someone logs on is nine years old, they can make their own videos and do that and share with their friends but they don't have access to the wider content.”
Julia agrees, adding: “We have parental controls on our Sky TV where you can choose which ages of material you want to appear. There should something like that on TikTok.”
Lana says her children often involve her in the videos, either saying a word or, in a recent clip, asking her teenager questions like ‘Have you ever stayed up past midnight?’ and ‘Have your drunk alcohol?’
“Because we were doing things together I always it was quite sweet,” she says. “But what I saw today is not sweet at all.”
A spokesperson from TikTok, which last week announced a new feature to allow parents to control what their kids view, says: "Promoting a positive and safe app environment for our users is a top priority for TikTok.
"We use both technologies and human moderation teams to identify, review and remove dangerous or abusive content."
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