Fascination TikTok: What's behind the popular app?
The youth portal Handysektor.de has asked itself these and even more questions and has dedicated a topic special to TikTok.
TikTok promises fun and entertainment
In TikTok, users can create short videos accompanied by music and share them with the community. Playback videos or choreographies performed to music - alone or with friends - are particularly popular. Formats, such as move2 presented by Handysektor, offer instructional videos for dance steps.
App test: TikTok under the magnifyingglass
The app, which was known as musical.ly until a few months ago, proves to be problematic, especially with regard to privacy. This is shown by the app test conducted by Handysektor. On the one hand, published videos are completely public in the default settings. In addition, the videos published in the app can also be viewed by strangers, who do not need a user account to do so. Even logged-in users only appear under pseudonyms.
How dangerous is TikTok really?-3 tips for safe use
It is precisely the possibility of anonymous use and the lack of privacy that opens up many opportunities for harassment and come-ons. Again and again, even young users report that they are contacted by strangers in TikTok - sometimes with calls to post even more provocative videos. If you want to protect yourself from these and other problems, you should keep the following in mind(more tips in the article):
- Privacy settings: If you want to be safe from harassment, you can use the right settings to avoid contact from strangers and share videos only with friends.
- Protection against bullying: Even acquaintances and friends don't always have nice things to say about your videos. Conveniently, the comment function can be switched off for individual videos.
- Attention copyright: While publishing videos with music provided by TikTok is unproblematic in this respect, sharing the videos in other apps (e.g. Instagram) can lead to copyright infringements.
Further information and materials on TikTok
Handysektor and klicksafe have published numerous materials on the app that provide in-depth information. These include a clear app flyer and the TikTok topic page at klicksafe.