Jasleen Kaur 
Image Source- Adweek
Seems like tiktok has overpowered all the other social media apps and has become the fastest growing social media app. It is the mobile video making app and India has become the largest market for tiktok with over 300 million users in the country. The number only decreased when the app was removed from the Apple and Google play store. From the not so up to the snuff instances tiktok hasn’t proved to be anything beneficial or even from a safer point of view especially in the youth. Apparently this was the reason it was removed from the app stores but eventually the ban was uplifted.
Recently a death case of a 12 year old boy has come forward in which he allegedly hung himself as an act of the tiktok video. The case has unveiled deadly aspect of the app in which people can go to any extent to make such videos which includes even the attempt to hang themselves to film the video. The boy was wearing a “sindoor”, “mangalsutra” for the video. This case depicts that how tiktok has put such a vast impact on the lives of teens that a class 6 boy attempts to use such stuff for a video. Tiktok has become a fad in no time that sometimes people end up washing their hands of life.
Be it not the death case, it can be life threatening. A youth edited the tiktok video and intertwined the vulgar effects and actions and made the video viral. In order to get fame and popularity in no time, people are making the utmost use of the tiktok app besides which it is also mandatory for the people to be aware of the gloom-ridden effects. Through the tiktok app only, images and videos are being morphed and degrading the character of the person associated with it. However the accused was arrested and confessed his crime.
The logistics that flourished the app in the bat of an eye, has also exposed the darker version of the app: sexual predation. The popular lip-synch video app has its user mostly young generation amidst which the girls are the most easy target to send some disgusting messages and videos to. Not only women but children are another easy target of sexual predation. Be it collecting their personal information or sexually abusing them (which might some of them be unaware of what sexual abuse is).
An attempt was made by the Madras High Court to ban the app from the app stores which didn’t settle for a longer time and the apps were again made available for the downloads. Since the app is available now and is already being used by almost 300 million people cannot restrict the people from using it but the least can be done is to add some basic features like reporting the abusive videos or content.
