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I installed TikTok to see what it was all about. I used it every day for about 6 months. I saw loads of misinformation about the election, there were gruesome v

• eznzt 6y ago
  The app is full of videos of what people want to see. It's not for you, I guess (or for me)
• milansm 6y ago
  > I wouldn't allow my kids to use this app in a million years. And how would you ensure / enforce this? Honest question, because I'm in that situation right now.
  • pistoriusp 6y ago
    Don't mobile phones have decent parental controls?
    • ceejayoz 6y ago
      Other kids' phones may not.
    • watwut 6y ago
      No. It is pretty crappy.
  • jiofih 6y ago
    Both iPhone and Android have parental protection that allows you to block apps (though on Android it might be too easy to circumvent)
  • gman83 6y ago
    I use the Family Link feature on Android, so my kids have to ask for permission before they install a new app.
    • gbil 6y ago
      and then they will just use the phone of their friend with no such policing in place or use a publicly available client with no such controls in place when I have such discussions with friends and family I tend to say that I'll rely more on trying to make my kids understand what they are doing than trying to police what they are using. Not saying that I'll not do some policing on their devices but I'll just rely on that
      • ChrisRR 6y ago
        neither one works flawlessly in isolation. You can explain to a child why you don't want them doing something until you're blue in the face. But in all likelihood they're going to want to do it more. The backup is then to block the app on their phone Sure, they can still use their friends' phones, but you can only protect a child so much. You've made a good start by explaining the issue and banning the app, but you can't track them all day to make sure they're not doing it elsewhere.
        • alisonkisk 6y ago
          Instead of focusing their attention by telling them how bad it is, give them something else to do and introduce you them to other children raised with similar values
          • ChrisRR 6y ago
            You can do that all you like, you can give them all the hobbies they could ever need to be busy. But eventually one of their friends is going to share the app with them when they're playing together
      • watwut 6y ago
        > and then they will just use the phone of their friend with no such policing in place or use a publicly available client with no such controls in place That means, that they wont have that content pushed on them for hours either before sleeping or while you work and they are in home due to lockdown. They will have access to it only while they are with that friend.
  • benrbray 6y ago
    (IANAP -- this is not parenting advice ;) I speak mostly as a newly-minted adult who still remembers what it was like to be a child, when my world was small, so small decisions felt very important, especially when they were made without my input) Children are people too, just with less experience. Your goal really isn't just "ban TikTok", it's "raise my children to develop healthy habits on their own and to recognize when they are being manipulated." So, even if you ultimately decide to enforce parental controls, I hope you will bring your children into the decision-making process. Have an honest dialogue with your children about your concerns, and develop a space where they are free to share their own thoughts and feelings without fear of judgement. It's important that your mind is not already made up before you sit down at the table, as they'll sense it immediately. Repeat this often, and make it easy for anyone (yourself included) to express that their perspective has changed. Set a good example (by e.g. not using social media yourself) and apologize when you are wrong, so that your children learn that it's safe to do the same. Encourage them to pursue healthier alternatives. Allow them to experiment and learn from their mistakes.
    • refurb 6y ago
      Upvoted for solid parenting advice. I pretty quickly realized that kids, even little ones, like 3 years old are far smarter than you think. They are basically little humans without much experience and that means not great judgement. So as a parent it’s important to make sure they are exposed to things they understand and can process. Things that are age appropriate. If something isn’t appropriate, well, you try and explain why (as best as they can understand).
    • milansm 6y ago
      Exactly this! I was hoping to get more suggestions along these lines. Because the first thing I thought was that if I hard-ban something they'll just learn how to do it without me knowing, especially if it is something their peers are doing. So, we need to "gracefully" ban this; that is, if it needs banning at all. The alternative is to embrace it and show how to use it properly. And then, there's this addictive nature to it - the app is designed and tuned to provide dopamine hits; how to fight that?
  • omnicognate 6y ago
    On my home network, I run a transparent, MITM squid proxy with a whitelist for my 8 year old son. My intention is to gradually loosen the restriction as he gets older, in stages: first switch it to a blacklist, then lift all restrictions but continue to log, then remove the proxy altogether and allow him free, unmonitored internet access. I will change it at whatever times seem appropriate - I'm new to this, ofc, and I don't know when it will be. I have no intention of letting him have a mobile device any time soon, but if and when I feel it's appropriate/necessary, I have the option of giving him a "managed" device (i.e. like a corporate device) with always-on wireguard to my home network, routing traffic through the same proxy. I haven't tried setting up a device like this yet, but the necessary capabilities appear to be present in both iOS and Android. This will also allow me to control which apps can be installed on the device. I am of course entirely open with him about this, including the technical aspects of how it works, and frequently discuss all of the many issues involved. My goal is not to hide reality from him or to instill some unreasonable fear of what's out there - quite the opposite. It's to try and help him arrive at a healthy relationship with the internet as an adult, something that most adults I know (including me) have so far failed to establish. And yes, of course it's possible to circumvent all of this stuff (although quite a lot harder with what I have than with the vast majority of parental control solutions). And yes, I can only control the technologies he has access to that I manage. But you have to consider the "threat model" here. He doesn't rail against this restriction. He understands it. If he wants access to something he asks for it. If I say no, I explain why, and he accepts it. We'll see how that develops over time, but it's certainly not the case that "It's technically possible to circumvent it, ergo there's no point doing it". There's a strangely defeatist attitude I see about this, often voiced alongside a false dichotomy: that what we need to do is teach our children responsibility instead of using technology to protect them. As I see it, both are needed - and the latter, while difficult, is possible. Unfortunately it currently requires skills that are far from universal. It would be much easier if people took the need for it seriously and developed better technologies for it. There are people on this post saying about dubious content on Tik Tok that you "only see it if you like it". That's not good enough. Internet technologies lead you on in subtle ways. As an example, my son is massively into Lego. When he was 6 he discovered Lego videos on youtube and started watching them on our smart TV. After a while I realised that all of the models he was making were weapons, mostly guns. It reached a particularly bizarre moment when he handed me an (awesome, obviously!) lego butterfly knife he had made. I checked the videos he'd been watching and all of them were Lego weapon tutorials. Now, my reaction here isn't "omg weapons how horrible!". Not at all. It is, however, to note that through youtube's algorithms a general interest in Lego became laser-focussed on one, perhaps slightly dubious, genre of models. Among other things, I want my son to understand this kind of subtle shaping/guiding influence that technology can have on its users, and until I feel he has developed sufficient awareness I want to be in a position to know and to intervene if I think he's being led by it in directions I don't approve of. At this stage in his life, I feel that is my responsibility and it would be wrong of me not to at least attempt to live up to it.
• nlitened 6y ago
  The app literally makes an algorithmic feed of content that you personally "like". I haven't seen anything like this at all. Mostly dancing and singing people, and comedic sketches.
  • Raed667 6y ago
    The algorithm does not know that you're watching horrified or enjoying the video. They can just tell that you stopped scrolling for an extra amount of seconds.
  • arghwhat 6y ago
    No, it starts out by showing you popular, random or slightly profiled content ("you appear to be a male in the 40s, so let's start here"), and then just maximizes the content types you were shown that would increase screen time. This has nothing to do with your preferences/what you like. It doesn't care if you feel disgust, as long as the app stays open. Suggestion/auto feeds are designed to abuse human psychology to maximize time wasted, not interest.
    • Dobbs 6y ago
      If you like, watch things all the way through, or comment on, then it tries to show you more things like that. If you skip past content, or mark it as not interested then it tries to show you less things like that. So if you are disgusted with something. Stop Watching It! Yes this does optimise for time spent watching, but interest definitely plays into it.
      • TeMPOraL 6y ago
        In other words, it shows you more of what you like to watch, not more of what you'd like to like to watch.
        • alisonkisk 6y ago
          No, it shows what you do watch. If you are paralyzed it tries to paralyze you more.
• levosmetalo 6y ago
  Well, that's just you. After some time TikTok actually learns what type of videos you like to watch and shows you more and more of those. You end up in a bubble. Their algorithm is pretty good at that. When I check the phones of my kids or my wife, I can see totally different type of videos recommended to them.
  • Griffinsauce 6y ago
    This is not a counterargument. What if your kids end up in that bubble?
    • johnchristopher 6y ago
      Don't you raise kids like they should ? Anyway: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Think_of_the_children https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Think_of_the_children
  • ChrisRR 6y ago
    And what if your kid ends up in that bubble? What if your kid likes one animal torture video and then the algorithm decides that they should see that on a daily basis?
  • tomger 6y ago
    You’re comparing your wife’s experience with GP’s experience. I’d be curious to see what your feed would look like after some use.
• Dobbs 6y ago
  TikTok is 90% you get what you consume. More so than even facebook. If you consume right wing content you will get right wing content. You consume queer content you will get queer content. This is sorta like complaining that you go to reddit every day and all you see is /r/the_donald and /r/gore. Well if you didn't subscribe (consume in tiktok's case) then you wouldn't see very much of it.
• zaarn 6y ago
  I use the app sometimes. Going through my feed, most videos are DnD or fantasy related, there is no sexualized content and haven't seen any misinformation about any elections. The app tailors the feed to your habits and inputs.
• shp0ngle 6y ago
  Why... why did you use it for every day for 6 months? I got bored of it on day 3
  • wizzwizz4 6y ago
    It's designed so you'll use it every day for 6 months.
• Firebrand 6y ago
  Given its country of origin I’d say corrupting our nation’s youth is a feature not a bug.
  • subjectsigma 6y ago
    I don't know why you are being downvoted, we already know that the country of origin is manipulating content to deliver a certain messaging: https://www.businessinsider.com/tiktok-censorship-users-deemed-ugly-overweight-or-disabled-2020-3 https://www.businessinsider.com/tiktok-censorship-users-deem... We already know it's a massive privacy risk, deemed 'far more abusive' than American social platforms, which are already bad enough: https://www.wsj.com/articles/tiktok-user-data-what-does-the-app-collect-and-why-are-u-s-authorities-concerned-11594157084 https://www.wsj.com/articles/tiktok-user-data-what-does-the-... A piece of software being from China makes it an instant no for me.
    • alisonkisk 6y ago
      Because the equivalent app is also used in China, where its wholly illogical that the government would allow an app dedicated to "corrupting the youth".
      • subjectsigma 6y ago
        TikTok and Douyin are made by the same company, but it appears they don't share content across networks. You're comparing apples and oranges.
      • dinero_rojo 6y ago
        In fairness, TikTok and Douyin (mainland China’s version of the app) have no access to each other’s content. It’s totally possible that the CCP allows/mandates different managing styles for the different markets.
• johnchristopher 6y ago
  It tells more about what kind of content you are liking and watching than anything else. Mine is filled with skaters, mom-daughter dumb jokes, silly lesbian/transgenders sheniningans. There's sometimes weird things like a priest telling stupid jokes alone in his church and that korean guy doing asmr of burning bread in the oven. On facebook I saw the death of participants in the events that happened on the 6th but that was in a journalist/news/media analyses group. I see a lot of good vibes content on Tik-tok but that's what I am looking for on the platform. No doubt I could soon end up on indian train deaths if I wanted. Just like that time on Youtube when I saw that out of nowhere, I was looking for something totally unrelated to trains or india though.
  • pacamara619 6y ago
    > It tells more about what kind of content you are liking and watching than anything else. This sounds very much like victim-blaming, I don't think it's appropriate to side with TikTok on this.
    • johnchristopher 6y ago
      No, it doesn't. Victim blaming is when you blame a rape victim for wearing the wrong clothes. The analogy here - in receiving gruesome content - would be the parent going around town asking for the place where rapers meet and upon finding them literally ask them to actually commit the assault.
      • rcstank 6y ago
        What about when you see the content on first install?
        • johnchristopher 6y ago
          Then it's a problem (for the sake of the argument I consider "the content" to be either illegal or borderline psycho). And for the record I consider a lot of tiktok pranks to be borderline psycho (eg gaslighting your SO for giggles about divorce, abortion, etc.).
• hobby-coder-guy 6y ago
  Hilarious
• bitcharmer 6y ago
  Sadly your experience regarding reports and offensive content being completely ignored can be universally applied to other big platforms like twitter or youtube. I've seen some inappropriate YT content being bombarded with reports and it's still up because it generates a lot of clicks. Hypocrisy at its best.
  • formerly_proven 6y ago
    It is actually quite easy to have Youtube delete content (doling out a strike in the process) that doesn't violate CG/ToS using false reports.
    • deleted 6y ago
      [deleted]
• CommieDetector 6y ago
  "of misinformation about the election" Like that it was NOT stolen
• Mauricebranagh 6y ago
  Yes last year I had a quick look at TikTok to see if it could be added to my main clients (Drinks Industry) social media portfolio. Literally the first recommended video was a young woman in a school uniform - so that's a hard NO!
  • toxik 6y ago
    Why is a girl in a school uniform a hard no? Sorry, must have missed some key piece of information here.
    • twic 6y ago
      Not something you can advertise alcoholic drinks alongside, at least in most countries.
      • toxik 6y ago
        Ahh, that makes more sense.
    • ant6n 6y ago
      Maybe she accidentally
    • Mauricebranagh 6y ago
      They stereotype of the Japanese school girl might well be problematic - the sexual element was what I was hinting at.
    • deleted 6y ago
      [deleted]
  • alisonkisk 6y ago
    Obviously a kids app is a bad place to sell liquor.
  • throwaway2245 6y ago
    Some of these comments seem to be complaining that a) snakes gotta eat, and, b) children often wear school uniform. The reason you should want to keep children and alcohol apart is because alcohol is a drug, not because you think school-children are inherently sexualised.
• dinero_rojo 6y ago
  I only joined to follow some people from other platforms, so my recommendations were pretty much immediately affected, but stuff from my region has been creeping in lately. Just curious, do you get the feeling that those types of things might be of common interest where you are?
• booleandilemma 6y ago
  This would indicate that you liked one or more videos containing misinformation about the election, gruesome videos of people feeding live animals to their pet snakes and other animals, and sexualized content.
• seer 6y ago
  Weird, I guess it really does matter where you are geographically, as well as your "likes" bubble. I did a similar experiment myself and found it to be a very delightful stream of content. While it did have some sexualised content for sure, it wasn't too much in frequency and degree, nothing more than you would see on a normal tv drama anyway. And it was just so much fun - mostly teens doing amateur choreography, skids and pranks. I uninstalled it mostly because it was so effective in capturing my attention than anything else. I still see teenagers going about trying to mimic one routine or another, and it always makes me smile as I can see them being creative rather than just consumers. Doing a high quality YouTube video would be too hard for them, but a quick 10 seconds video - they feel they can do it and try to participate, which is great in my book.
• robteix 6y ago
  Such a different experience. I keep telling everyone how Tik Tok is the most positive social media experience. All I see is people dancing and comedy sketches. My wife sees some more "mom" jokes, but still the same overall feel. I've never seen anything like what you're describing. Amazing how the algorithm can make experiences completely different.
• libraryatnight 6y ago
  what on earth were you doing to get suggested that stuff? I don't trust TikTok as much as the next paranoid computer guy, but my wife uses it and it's tailored around her interests - almost uncannily.