Safe surfing on Tiktok: the guide for parents and children arrives

Among the tools available, a parental control system that allows parents to check who interacts with their children's account

TikTok presents the guide to the safe use of the app (photo: National Consumers Union) To make the most of TikTok, the ByteDance platform in collaboration with the National Consumers Union (Unc), some creators of the platform and expert psychologists presented a guide to the safe use of the application. A practical tool to help parents in the conscious use of TikTok.

Since knowledge is the basis of a conscious use of any digital medium, TikTok has decided to provide parents with an additional support tool useful for accompany their children towards a responsible use of the platform, thus building a bridge between the generations.

“Platforms are now part of our lives and this is as true for adults as it is for adolescents. They should not be demonized, but treated with awareness: this is precisely the real strength of consumers in modern times, the knowledge of phenomena accompanied by a measured and prudent use of digital technology ", explains Massimiliano Dona, president of the UNC.

The guide

This guide is the first public project of TikTok Italia. Created with the aim of explaining to the "older" the use of a very young platform, it is based on the idea that new phenomena, such as TikTok, must be understood before being used to the best.

Developed thanks to the contribution of the psychologist Maura Manca, clinical psychologist, psychotherapist and president of the non-profit National Adolescence Observatory, aims to be a tool to establish a meeting point for an exchange of experiences. in this way it will be possible for children to help parents learn more about the platform and for parents to educate their children in a correct use of the digital world.

"Minors need someone to accompany them and guide them towards a correct use in order to be able to know and exploit their resources, potential and guarantee digital well-being understood as being well within a platform guaranteed by the creation of one's own space for expression, interaction and relationship ", explains the psychologist.

Tools for parents

The guide comes in support of further tools that TikTok makes available of parents, first of all the family connection to monitor the use by the child.

Family connection, the TikTok tool useful for parents (gif: TikTok) The function, active from the beginning of the 2020, however, has recently received updates that allow the parent to manage the child's profile by deactivating the search, deciding who can see the videos they like and who can contact their profile via private message.

The tool p However, underlines TikTok, it must not be used as a means of control but as a tool for dialogue. A bit like the wheels used to learn to ride a bicycle, the tool can be deactivated by parents, or children, when one of the two parties feels safe. The deactivation of the tool by the child will be notified to the parents who will be able to take the opportunity to discuss the choice making sure that solo navigation can be done responsibly.

The guide to the safe use of TikTok is already available on the UNC website and contains a decalogue which, as Massimiliano Dona suggests, “is a page to be printed and hung on the refrigerator to always have it at hand”, as it helps in 10 steps to improve the shared experience on TikTok.