How do I manage my son's security on Tiktok?

by Luca Viscardi, aka Mr.Gadget

As anticipated several times and also addressed in our Parental Control article, one of the most frequent concerns of the moment is: how do I manage the safety of my son on Tiktok?

There are several answers to these questions, the first of which comes from Tiktok, who set up a page dedicated to parents, which you find by clicking here.

I indicate some extracts of the content, which I find very clear and explanatory.

Can I prevent my son from downloading Tiktok?

We encourage you to maintain a supervision on all the use of the Internet by your children, including apps that can download.Both iOS and Android includes parental control systems that allow you to block or limit specific apps, functions, videos, music and more at the level of device,.

Since Tiktok is intended for users of at least thirteen years of age, we ranked it as strictly 12+ in the App Store.This allows you to use the parental control of the device to completely block your child's device if he is less than thirteen years old.

Refer to the Apple App Store or Google Play Store instructions for further parental control options (or "restrictions") and how to enable them.

How do I protect my children when I'm already on Tiktok?

For this reason, in line with our constant commitment to offer functionality and resources that guarantee the best possible experience, we have introduced the private account settings and family connection that help parents, and in general who is responsible for a minor, to protect teenagersWhen they use Tiktok.

In addition, the possibility of sending and receiving direct messages is limited to users' accounts with an age of more than 16 years.To learn more, please click here.

How does the family connection work?

The family connection is a function that allows you to associate the account of a parent with that of the teenage son.Once activated, the parent can control the insociated account application control settings from its account, including: including:

Time management: allows you to manage the time that the minor can spend daily on Tiktok.

Direct messages: Tiktok users can use the direct messages function only from the age of 16.Through the family connection it is possible to choose who can send the direct messages to the account connected (all, friends), or you can completely deactivate the function.Note: direct messages are automatically deactivated for accounts belonging to users aged between 13 and 15 years.

Limited mode: prevents the appearance of content that may not be suitable for everyone.

Visibility: allows you to decide whether to make the account of your private child (only users approved by your child can follow his account and see his videos) or public (anyone can search and view his content)

Videos you like: it allows you to decide who can see the videos that your child has put like.

Comments: allows you to check who can comment on the videos published by your child's profile (all, friends, none).

Suggest your account to others: allow you to check if your child's account can be recommended to users interested in similar accounts

How to report inappropriate content?

If your children notice something that can violate our terms of services or guidelines, please report it immediately so that our moderation team can take the most appropriate actions.Users can report a specific video, user or comment directly from inside the app.

In addition, your children can permanently block a user by preventing them from seeing their content or sending them some messages.

The guide of the National Consumer Union

Another tool available to families is the guide of the National Consumer Union, which provides some basic information to help understand the Tiktok phenomenon and to accompany children in its use.

We are firmly convinced of the fact that demonizing the platform would be the wrong approach, deleterious from the point of view of the relationship, but also of the awareness of the youngest on the topic.

Our children must be accompanied in digital growth, which must become a natural part of their existence: as in any other context of life, the digital world has rules, opportunities and dangers.

Make sure that the dangers are known is a completely winning approach.This moment is an opportunity not to be missed because the topic is in -depth and the school must also do its part, but the first role is that of us parents!

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