TikTok - Make Your Day

Teaches: video sharing

CTR Review

Easy to use, funny and powerful, TikTok is a popular video sharing service that originated in China in 2012 under a different name. It pairs short videos that you can either shoot instantly with your phone or upload, with excellent royalty free music and text. Your work can be shared using a hashtag system for integration with other social media platforms like YouTube or Facebook. Note that many of the videos contain content that is not OK for children. While there is some amazing creative work, it is also a platform that is rich with gender and ethic bias. Social media friendly features include commenting and subscriptions so it is easy to follow other feeds, or generate your own brand to generate followers. The app can be downloaded for no cost and contains in app purchases and sponsored content. In addition, you are required to register with a validated email or phone number in order to use the features. So the actual costs of giving up information is not obvious when you first download the app. TikTok only runs on mobile devices and not computers. If your child uses TikTok, make sure you download the app yourself and subscribe to each others feed so you can discuss content and make suggestions for using the platform in positive ways.