TikTok and Minors: Entertainment or Risk?
Do you use TikTok?
TikTok is a social media application. It is a short video-sharing platform that allows users to create, edit, and share short-duration videos typically ranging from 15 seconds to 3 minutes. TikTok is particularly popular among young people and has a substantial number of underage users.
TikTok revolves around music, allowing users to choose popular songs as background music for their videos and create content that syncs with the music. Additionally, the platform frequently features various challenges that users can participate in and compete with other users. One of them is fire challenges.
This is before the costume：
The Fire Challenge looks like just a regular social media challenge that can be shared on the platform and attract attention and likes. But it did cause a safety incident.
This is a warning from a mom：
The Fire Challenge is a reminder that the groundswell on social media can pose risks to the safety and health of minors. Social media has a responsibility to police and limit content about risky behavior when marketing a groundswell. Minors may sometimes be impulsive and pursue showing off without regard for their own safety. Parents need to pay close attention to their children's activities on social media and discuss these challenges with their children. The dangers and consequences are very important.
Social media brings us closer together, allowing us to comment on and share other people’s posts and follow their accounts. But safety is also very significant while having fun.
What do you think about the safety issues caused by the groundswell? Please leave a comment.
Dear Wantong,
ReplyDeleteI agree that Fire Challenge and other similar trends on social media can be dangerous. Social media should stop and discourage such kind of content. Moreover, parents should be watchful about what their kids are doing online and should have open discussions about the potential dangers. All should try to promote a safer online environment while enjoying the benefits of social media.
Hi Wontong, This has definitly been a very relevent topic ever since social media went mainstream. The biggest and earliest one I remember is the tide pod challenge, when people would eat tide pods or drink detergent on camera for no reason other than clicks. And that's where this gets a little confusing because is this a social media problem or a people problem. It wasn't the social media app which started the trend it was the tool people used to start the trend. It could be argued social media shouldn't allow demonstrations of anything dangerous but who decides what is dangerous. There's a lot of parkour and gymnasts on tiktok and what they do is very dangerous. Kids could see that, try it, and get injured. Of course there are arguments for days around this topic and anything I put foreward would have a million counters and vice versa. Social media is one of those things which in concept is good but in practice is very corruptible.
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