it is important for teachers to be aware of dangerous phone apps and help
keep their schools clean of these.. and also alert parents
Guru
The app’s surging popularity exposes youngsters to caustic comments and
other potential abuse by peers
Millions of teenagers seeking their 15 seconds of fame are flocking to
TikTok, but many of their parents are only now learning about the
express-yourself video app — often to their dismay.
The social network became the most downloaded on Apple’s App Store in the
first half of this year according to market analysis firm Sensor Tower,
beating out titans like Facebook, Instagram and Snapchat. The site, owned
by China’s ByteDance, boasted 500 million users as of June following its
purchase last year of Musical.ly, which greatly expanded its reach in the
US.
“TikTok capitalises on short-term creative content that other platforms
don’t encourage, by their design and community,” said Brian Solis at the
U.S. tech advisory firm Altimeter.
Yet critics say its surging popularity among young girls in particular
exposes them to caustic comments and other potential abuse by their peers,
while offering a choice hunting ground for sexual predators.
The app itself promises a video-sharing community that’s “raw, real and
without boundaries” and claims to be appropriate for children aged 12 and
older.
Parents aren’t always convinced, given the numbers of young girls
suggestively singing along to sexually explicit lyrics which are often
degrading to women. Such videos are the stock in trade of Halia Beamer, an
American 13-year-old who has emerged as one of TikTok’s stars, chalking up
more than five million followers.
Media reports have documented cases of users being bombarded with
disturbing comments, while others have been asked for private contact
details or to post provocative images.
Last summer the Indonesian government banned the app after more than
1,70,000 people signed a petition saying that lip-syncing in revealing
outfits was not suitable for children. It was lifted only after TikTok
representatives from China flew to Jakarta and promised to hire more people
to weed out inappropriate content.
The U.S. Internet watchdog Common Sense says the combination of mature
content and privacy risks means users should be at least 16. “Because the
age limit is so low, you attract a greater assortment of dangerous
characters, and users lying about their age,” Mr. Solis said. But raising
the age limit would remove millions of people from the platform, and curb
TikTok’s exponential growth.
In France for example, 38% of youths aged 11 to 14 have a TikTok account
according to Generation Numerique, which tracks Internet usage.
Girls are by far the majority among French pre-teens, with 58% saying they
have an account compared with just 15% for boys.
French police warned parents last month about the dangers, saying their
teens “may be targeted by indecent sexual proposals”.
Technology scare
The effects of early exposure to social media are so new that “parents,
educators, even doctors... are either under-qualified or completely
ignorant in the face of the need to guide a young generation in the dangers
and possibilities of these new technologies,” Mr. Solis said.
William Soally, a father whose 12-year-old daughter is a dance fan, took
action after seeing alerts about TikTok among YouTube users. “I talked
about it with my daughter and we decided to remove the app from her phone,”
said Mr. Soally, 35. He acknowledged that the move initially provoked tears
and worries about “a loss of social status”.
“The solution has to come from parents, who need to understand that the
Internet is not a world of Care Bears,” he added, referring to the 1980s
cartoon characters.
source -
https://www.thehindu.com/sci-tech/technology/internet/as-teens-take-to-tiktok-parents-lag/article25835337.ece
Education Team
IT for Change
Bangalore
www.ITforChange.net
080 26654134
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1.ವಿಷಯ ಶಿಕ್ಷಕರ ವೇದಿಕೆಗೆ ಶಿಕ್ಷಕರನ್ನು ಸೇರಿಸಲು ಈ ಅರ್ಜಿಯನ್ನು ತುಂಬಿರಿ.
-
https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSevqRdFngjbDtOF8YxgeXeL8xF62rdXuLpGJIhK6qzMaJ_Dcw/viewform
2. ಇಮೇಲ್ ಕಳುಹಿಸುವಾಗ ಗಮನಿಸಬೇಕಾದ ಕೆಲವು ಮಾರ್ಗಸೂಚಿಗಳನ್ನು ಇಲ್ಲಿ ನೋಡಿ.
-http://karnatakaeducation.org.in/KOER/index.php/ವಿಷಯಶಿಕ್ಷಕರವೇದಿಕೆ_ಸದಸ್ಯರ_ಇಮೇಲ್_ಮಾರ್ಗಸೂಚಿ
3. ಐ.ಸಿ.ಟಿ ಸಾಕ್ಷರತೆ ಬಗೆಗೆ ಯಾವುದೇ ರೀತಿಯ ಪ್ರಶ್ನೆಗಳಿದ್ದಲ್ಲಿ ಈ ಪುಟಕ್ಕೆ ಭೇಟಿ ನೀಡಿ -
http://karnatakaeducation.org.in/KOER/en/index.php/Portal:ICT_Literacy
4.ನೀವು ಸಾರ್ವಜನಿಕ ತಂತ್ರಾಂಶ ಬಳಸುತ್ತಿದ್ದೀರಾ ? ಸಾರ್ವಜನಿಕ ತಂತ್ರಾಂಶದ ಬಗ್ಗೆ ತಿಳಿಯಲು
-http://karnatakaeducation.org.in/KOER/en/index.php/Public_Software
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