Keeping up with the latest social media trends and apps can be difficult! As a school community, we want to provide resources for families to help them to learn about these trends and to be able to make sound decisions for their child’s use of social media. This year, we are hearing about increased use of the app, TikTok. Common Sense Media is a great resource for review of current social media apps. Here is a link to their “Parent’s Ultimate Guide to TikTok”: click here
In part, note the following about this particular app:
From Common Sense Media: “TikTok is a social network for sharing user-generated videos, mostly of people lip-synching to popular songs. It was originally called musical.ly (pronounced MU-zik-lee). Users can create and upload their own videos where they lip-synch, sing, dance, or just talk. You can also browse and interact with other users' content, which covers a wide range of topics, songs, and styles. These videos can be grouped by hashtags, which often correspond to challenges or memes. Common Sense recommends the app for age 16+ mainly due to the privacy issues and mature content. TikTok requires that users be at least 13 years old to use the app and that anyone under the age of 18 must have approval of a parent or guardian -- but there are plenty of young tween users. If your younger kid or tween wants to use the app, the account should belong to an adult who can monitor what younger users are browsing and sharing. There's also the section of the app mentioned above that's meant for kids under 13 that restricts access to mature content and comments, but since entering a false birthdate is easy, it's still best for older teens.”
During computer literacy classes, Mrs. Rutter emphasizes digital citizenship and digital safety. As parents/guardians, one way to protect your child on-line is to monitor their “connections” on social media – who are they “friends” with in the apps they are using? Look at the connections they are making as well as who is requesting to make connections with them. Monitoring your child’s social media use and having conversations with them helps to build safe on-line habits.
