TikTok is making changes in a bid to help combat dangerous challenges and hoaxes from spreading on the platform. For the most part, TikTok is a fantastic social media platform that lets users wind down by watching funny videos, viral sensations and interesting challenges. However, sometimes it can be an environment that exposes users to dangerous challenges, much like any other social media platform.
TikTok has pretty much exploded over the past few years and to the point where it has quickly become the go-to place for short-form videos for many people around the world. At the same time, the service has not been without its fair share of controversy, with some raising concerns over the privacy and security of users. That is, in addition to concerns over dangerous challenges that have emerged on the platform.
In a press release, TikTok explained that it recently surveyed over 10,000 parents, teens, and teachers in various countries to understand the challenges and trends they've seen online, not just TikTok. According to TikTok, 80-percent described the challenges they'd seen as safe or had little risk. 17 percent, however, said they were either 'risky or dangerous' or 'very dangerous' (14 and 3-percent, respectively). It is worth noting that only 0.3-percent said that they had participated in a very dangerous challenge. In terms of suicide and self-harm hoaxes, 37-percent of parents found it difficult to talk about them "without prompting interest," while 31-percent of teens reported feeling "a negative impact" by them.
TikTok Is Making Changes
One of the takeaways noted by TikTok was that hoaxes can "can impact the well-being of teens" and even if the warnings are "shared with the best of intentions." To combat this, TikTok will be "removing alarmist warnings" to avoid any hoaxes being treated as real. To reduce the impact of very dangerous challenges, TikTok says it is adding new technology that will alert the company's safety teams if it detects potentially dangerous behavior. For example, if the company detects a spike in content (that violates its policies) using a certain hashtag, the safety team will look into the situation with a view to understanding why it is happening. TikTok says this should help it "be better equipped to take steps to guard against potentially harmful trends or behavior." The company will also be amping up the language used when users attempt to search for harmful challenges or hoaxes.
In general, these are steps in the right direction. While challenges are meant to be fun and engaging, it may be difficult for some to decipher which challenges are safe and which are not. Therefore, the more information TikTok can provide about a specific challenge, the better, especially considering that the survey found that 46-percent of teens want more information to help understand the risks involved.
Source: TikTok