The Negative Effects of TikTok with guest Theresa Desuyo - Screen Time & Digital Family Expert with the Qustodio App

 

Smart Social Founder Josh Ochs caught up with Theresa Desuyo, the Screen Time & Digital Family Expert for the Qustodio app. What is the Qustodio app? It's a parental control app. Their goal is to give visibility to parents with information about how their students are using games and apps on their devices. Currently two million families use the app, which allows families to see how much time they are spending on apps and games so they can set healthy limits for themselves and their students. The app also helps to filter out harmful content such as cyberbullying, explicit content, and predators.

Theresa talked with Josh about some of the negative effects of TikTok and gave some tips on how to talk with your students about using TikTok and screen time as a whole.

Based on Qustodio usership, TikTok is one of the most popular apps for kids ages 4-18. It's at the top of the list followed by Pinterest, Instagram, Snapchat, and Facebook. Theresa noted that TikTok is actually more popular among younger users, with interest falling away for older kids.

Theresa shared Qustodio's data for the average time spent in the TikTok app by age:

4 to 6-year-olds spend 45 minutes per day in the app.7 to 9-year-olds spend 60 minutes per day in the app.10 to 12-year-olds spend 1 hour and 15 minutes per day in the app.13 to 15-year-olds spend 65 minutes per day in the app.16 to 18-year olds spend 57 min per day in the app.Negative Effects of TikTok

TikTok May Affect Attention Span

Each TikTok video is 15 seconds long, with the option of putting together many clips into a 60 second video. If on average a user is on TikTok for an hour per day, users will watch around 240 videos in that hour, depending on the length and amount of times a user watches each video.

TikTok Allows Messaging from Strangers

TikTok has 800 million monthly users worldwide, with 26.5 million users just in the US. 50% of those global users are under the age of 34. That's a lot of strangers for kids to interact with.

TikTok has Very Little Restrictions on Explicit Content

TikTok videos have no obvious pause button, so the videos play on an endless loop. There are no warnings for explicit content in videos and students could hear or see dangerous and inappropriate behavior without even looking for it.

So, what can parents do? Theresa and Josh agree that parents should have open conversations with their kids about the apps they are using. Create a social media agreement and lay down the ground rules and consequences to breaking those rules.

Theresa mentions three things to teach your kids around screen time:

Teach accountability – talk about the rules and consequences if they don’t follow them.Remember that not all screen time is equal - what are your students doing on their phone that is productive? What is purely entertainment?Teach healthy use of their devices – take breaks and be connected with the world around you.

Theresa also warns parents to monitor their own behavior with their devices. What might you be doing that you want to discourage your students from doing? Model good screen time behavior in your home.

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