If TikTok continues to be owned by China, the United States should 1000% ban TikTok. Since TikTok’s user data is essentially owned by China, and TikTok is inextricably linked with China, the social media app is a national security risk. In order to protect the United States and its citizens, the U.S. Government should ban TikTok.
And many favored the ban for a different reason: It could improve their mental health.
I believe TikTok should be banned. While I don’t agree that banning TikTok would dramatically help the concerns of privacy, I think the concern of influencing young minds is much more the reason it should be banned … I think specifically the formatting of TikTok is extremely harmful to young brains. As someone who currently works in day care, interning in an elementary school, I am exposed almost every day to the realities that young children are facing. It is extremely nerve-racking to hear children ages 5-12 spend hours a day on TikTok. Childhood is our prime years where opinions and identities are being formed. Spending hours a day on social media can have a detrimental effect on the next generation. Creating a time limit and asking parents to monitor screen time is not helpful because kids will find a way around it and still have access to the app. The only way to fix this is by banning TikTok completely …
I wholeheartedly believe that TikTok should be banned. This statement should leave you to believe that I don’t spend just as much time on TikTok as the next person, because I do. Just yesterday I spent 2 hours and 36 minutes on it … My experience on TikTok has led to so many issues, some that may seem small and silly but really it’s just sad. I, along with countless others, have spent thousands of hours on TikTok since it came out and this has led to body issues, a decline in mental health, and much more horrible things.
— Raney, Hoggard High School in Wilmington, NC
Personally I think TikTok should be banned because of all the stuff that lies within this platform. For starters, people that are in a young age (under the age of 13+) could easily bypass the age restriction and say they’re older. People can upload videos to TikTok, all the videos such as educational, memes, cooking, and more. The terms of service (TOS) claim that you can’t make videos that are threatening and even more, but people still do it, videos from gun violence and “challenges.”
— Jayden, Kennedy Middle School
Yet several students believed there were solutions that didn’t require getting rid of TikTok.
I think that Congress should not ban TikTok but place heavy restrictions on the company to protect Americans. The problem is that a foreign adversary of the United States has access to all of that data. This could lead to enemies of the U.S. trying to influence people and even as far as elections. However, there are ways around that but none of them are easy. Congress could try and force policy change within the company or even the sale of the company.
