TikTok attracts teenagers … and sexual predators



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tik tok

The famous music application continues to frenzy counters and teens are more numerous on the social network. Many, of course, but also younger and younger. Which ends up attracting another, much less innocent population.

The principle of TikTok is simple, but, it seems, most effective. Users use it to film themselves singing in backing and dance to their favorite titles, in order to share the result on the social network. It was the same operation used by the application Musical.ly, which has since been bought by … TikTok.

The star application for college students

The success of the application is indisputable. It lists more than 500 million users worldwide, including 2.5 million in France. This year, the application has even become the most downloaded Apple App Store, confirming its attraction to adolescents.

Only, in reality, users are not all in this age range. Even though the age limit for registering is 13, a lot of them are younger. According to figures from the association Génération numérique, TikTok is above all a phenomenon in colleges more than half of girls aged 11 to 14 would have an account.

Indecent proposals made to preteen girls

And like other social networks, the application is not immune to malicious people. Thus, several observers have noted the recurrent presence of sexual predators on the platform, in several countries, including France. This is for example the case of the youtubeur The King of the Rats, who pretended to be a young user for several weeks. He revealed that he was then the subject of moved proposals, going as far as the exchange of child pornography.

In the face of controversy, ByteDance, the parent company of TikTok said " take the safety and well-being of users very seriously ". She also gave advice to parents, for further protect their children on the app, and recalled the age limit implemented.

An insufficient measure, according to some observers. Indeed, Article 8 of the RGPD states that in order to register for a social network, an individual under the age of 15 must have explicit authorization of his parents. The association Génération Numérique wants to denounce TikTok to the CNIL.

Source: RTL

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