Scots parents were left horrified last week when a man filmed his own suicide then posted it to social media before it went viral on TikTok.
Parents scrambled to delete the popular app from their children's mobile phones after disturbing footage of Ronnie McNutt, 33, shooting himself in his Mississippi home on August 31 went viral.
One parent Leanne Devlin told The Record how she managed to delete the app before her daughter Ellie watched the sickening footage and begged TikTok to do more.
The upsetting video has since been removed, but not before it was shared and viewed millions of times.
Given than more than 40 percent of TikTok's daily users in the UK are under the age of 14, it's vital that parent ensure their children are using the app safely and here's how:
Take control
Enable device-based parental controls that allow you to block TikTok from an underage child's phone.
Be private
Set your kid's account to private. A TikTok account is public by default, but you can set it to private in the privacy and safety settings. This way, the owner of the account can approve or deny follower requests, which means that only approved followers can see their content.
Keep it in the family
Did you know TikTok has a Family Pairing feature? You need to use it. This handy little safety tool allows a parent to link their TikTok account to their child's account and control such features as Screen Time Management (lets you control how much time your kid spends on TikTok daily), Restricted Mode (allows you to limit the appearance of content that may not be appropriate for all audiences), and restricting or turning off direct messages.
Explore together
Supervise the content your kid creates. If your child is new to TikTok, explore the app together — this is both a bonding activity and a valuable lesson about the dos and don’ts of social media.
Be upfront
Explain the dangers of the internet and all social media and what they should be aware of. If you're open and honest with them it will encourage them to be too.
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