With TikTok on the brink of being removed from the U.S., an interesting consideration is how parents feel about the removal of the app, and whether it will have a positive or negative impact on their kids.
To be clear, TikTok’s impact on kids is not the reason that the U.S. Government is looking to force the app into U.S. ownership, with concerns about its links to the Chinese Government being the primary driver of the sell-off bill.
But even so, TikTok is viewed as a negative influence in some respects, particularly in relation to content recommendations, attention-span impacts, harmful content exposure, and more.
So how are parents feeling about TikTok potentially being erased from U.S. app stores?
To provide some perspective, the team from security.org recently surveyed 1,000 U.S. parents to get their insights into the situation.
First off, around 50% of parents indicated that they believe a TikTok ban would improve children’s safety:
As you can see in these results, that doesn’t outweigh the potential benefit for creators, based on these responses, while there are also broader concerns about political censorship.
U.S. parents also view TikTok as the “most dangerous” app for youngsters, along with Snapchat:
Though as you can see, all social apps are viewed as concerns in this respect.
The report also looks at which specific elements of TikTok and Snapchat are most problematic for parents:
Along with the best security and protection measures for teens in social apps:
All of these elements are already in effect, to some degree, at each app, though it is interesting to note how parents view such risks, and what they think should be done about them.
Of course, with TikTok set to be removed, the specific concerns around that app would be alleviated, but that’ll likely lead to other apps getting more focus in this respect.
Overall, however, it seems that most parents are fine with TikTok remaining, and offering opportunities for creators, with relevant safety and protection measures in place.
That won’t matter in the immediate context of the bill, but it’s another element to consider in TikTok’s broader social impact.
You can check out security.org’s full survey report here.
