TikTok is a free social media app that lets you watch, make, and share videos right from your phone often to a soundtrack of top music hits. It was initially available in the United States as musical.ly but was rebranded in August 208 when the two apps merged. TikTok is immensely popular with more than 00 million users. Users can watch and record videos of them, lip-synching to popular music and sound bites, as with the lip-synching app Dubsmash. Kids can produce short, shareable videos ranging from funny to extreme, as they did on the now-defunct Vine. And just like YouTube, TikTok is an immersive world of videos that allows you to communicate through likes, comments, and even duets with friends and admirers. TikTok also creates celebrities of its own. Overnight sensations such as Baby Ariel and Jacob Sartorius gained popularity on the app online, especially with children and t
eens, back before TikTok acquired musical.ly. Since then, the list has been joined by even more stars. But it can be a struggle for parents to know if itΒs really secure with so much knowledge out there. There are real concerns about children using the app. You have to use privacy settings, as with any social network, to restrict how much data you and your children share. Without reading or editing it first, kids can post stuff. The app has been plagued by other issues: allegations of online predators using the app to exploit younger users, an FTC suit for breaching the privacy law of children, and severe technical failures including one that might have allowed the business to collect user data. Every major Chinese corporation has been alleged to have an internal ΒcellΒ accountable to the ruling Chinese Communist Party, with many of its agents charged with collecting secrets.