TikTok ban needed sooner than later

There is no lack of studies or evidence that heavy social media use is harmful in many ways, especially for children and teens.
Yet, most parents have by and large given in to the pressure from their kids and allowed younger and younger children to gain access to a host of social media apps, easily obtained through phones that are showing up in children as young as five or six.
TikTok is among those apps but is now the target of congressional hearings that could soon lead to it being banned in the United States. It is already banned on all federally owned government devices.
For those unfamiliar with this app, it allows users to create, share and view short videos, but that also lets kids view sexually provocative videos, as well as being exposed to all manner of racism and discrimination. One in-house memorandum was obtained by a media source that showed TikTok moderators were told to suppress videos of people who were “too ugly, poor or disabled.”
But at the top of the list for reasons to ban the app in the U.S. is the charge that TikTok, owned by China, collects user data and then allows that data to be used in ways never intended.
With 60 percent of the users from the ages of 11 to 26, one study claimed that using the app more than 90 minutes a day led to decreased attention spans, part of the reason some countries like India and Afghanistan have already banned it.
TikTok was also to blame for dangerous challenges such as “planking,” which encouraged others to put themselves in dangerous situations. There was the “skull breaker challenge” and “devious licks challenge,” which encouraged hurting people, or stealing or vandalizing school property.
The list goes on in terms of the danger TikTok has brought to the U.S., which has led many to conclude one thing for certain—the app is entirely inappropriate for kids, who are still accessing the videos because many parents have allowed uncontrolled use of phones by young people.
While it may be much later than we would like to see, we need to still be appreciative that congressional leaders on both sides of the aisle seem to finally have something they can agree on.
TikTok is harmful to United States residents, especially children—whether they are from Democrat or Republican homes.
We encourage the banning of TikTok, which might lead to closer scrutiny of other apps, many that also are harmful to our children.