TikTok

What it is

TikTok is a short-video app. The For You feed learns from every pause and replay, so two children with the same app can be watching very different things within an hour. The stated minimum age is 13.

Direct messages, comments, live streams, and virtual gifts add contact with strangers. Challenges and sounds spread fast, including ones that are risky, sexual, or humiliating. Family Pairing is the parent tool TikTok provides, and it is worth using if you decide the app stays.

What to look out for

• A public account, or a username that includes a full name, school, or age.
• Direct messages from people they do not know.
• Live streams and gift-giving.
• The feed drifting into sexual, self-harm, or extreme content after a few similar videos.
• Trends that ask them to film at home, at school, or in uniform.

Ways to stay safe

These steps are for TikTok. The house rules still apply on every app.

• Set the account to private and turn Family Pairing on together.
• Limit or turn off direct messages.
• Turn on restricted mode, then still watch the feed with them sometimes. Filters miss things.
• Keep the username free of a real name, school, and age.
• Agree a time limit before the app is installed, not after it has become a habit.
• Use "not interested" together when a video is wrong for their age, so the feed has a chance to correct.

In the news

Published reports you can read yourself. A headline is the proof, not a set of instructions, and this page does not repeat graphic detail.

• TikTok and YouTube 'not safe enough' for kids, says Ofcom BBC News · 2025 Ofcom said the feeds were still not safe enough for children.
• Overhaul algorithms and age checks or face fines, tech firms told BBC News · 2025 Ofcom’s children’s code. Sites must filter harmful recommendations and use real age checks.

A way to start the conversation

Watch ten videos in a row with them and talk about who each one is for. Ask: "If this account was public, what could a stranger learn about you from one clip?"

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