St. Thomas, ON – Monday July 21st 2025
TikTok: Scroll Smart. Stay Safe.
Presented by CRU and Sader – your STPS Youth Engagement Mascots
This week, CRU and SADER are shining the Cyber Spotlight on TikTok—one of the most widely used apps among youth. Known for its viral dances and trending challenges, TikTok also exposes users to inappropriate content, misinformation, and dangerous behaviors if safety settings aren’t properly enabled.
What Parents Should Know:
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Inappropriate Content: Despite community guidelines, many videos include explicit language, adult themes, and harmful trends that can be accessed by young users.
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Mental Health Risks: TikTok’s algorithm prioritizes content a user interacts with. This can lead to a constant stream of depressive, self-harm, or body image-related content, especially concerning for impressionable youth.
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Misinformation: Unqualified users often share misleading advice around mental health, nutrition and wellness, which can encourage unsafe behavior.
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Predator Access: Even TikTok’s child-friendly counterpart, Zigazoo, struggles to keep up with fake profiles and adult content. Predators can exploit gaps in moderation to target children.
TikTok’s strength is also its risk: the algorithm learns and adapts to user behavior. That means a child who pauses on one negative video may quickly find their feed filled with harmful content.
TikTok Safety Tips for Families:
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Turn on Restricted Mode: Filters out content flagged as inappropriate.
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Enable Family Pairing: This links your child’s account to yours, allowing you to manage screen time, privacy settings, and restricted content.
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Set Screen Time Limits: Built-in controls help manage how long your child spends on the app each day.
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Talk About Algorithm Awareness: Help youth understand how their viewing habits shape their feed.
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Discuss Online Trends Critically: Encourage your child to question what they’re watching—and to avoid participating in dangerous or unhealthy challenges.
Security Settings:
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Link both a phone number and email to the account for added recovery options.
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Use a strong, unique password and add a passkey for added login protection.
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Turn on two-step verification to prevent unauthorized access.
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Regularly review connected devices and sign out of unused ones.
TikTok can be fun for parents and kids alike but it can also impact mental wellness and digital safety. The key is strong security settings and honest conversations.
CRU and SADER encourage families to scroll smart and stay safe online. Stay tuned every Monday this summer for more Cyber Spotlight safety tips!
