TikTok, a Chinese-owned video-sharing social media platform launched in 2016, has gained massive popularity around the world since its launch. Nepal has not been an exception; it is attractive to almost everyone including school children from Nepal.
According start.io, a mobile marketing and audience platform, there are 2,218,100 people who have activated the app in Nepal. It started as a platform for creativity and freedom of expression, but in the last few years it is completely different. The platform is seen as a platform for rampant abuse, revenge porn, online gambling, child abuse, defamation, unnatural death, hate and bullying Etc.
Arrive viral In the TikTok environment, youth and children in Nepal today spend long hours a day exposing them to various digital threats. In order to gain popularity, they are forced to fake similar viral Tik Tok videos, either by their adult parents or peer groups. As a result, it hampers your behavioral psychology and well-being in the long run.
imminent dangers
Nepalis spend long hours every day scrolling through an endless parade of short videos made by other users on TikTok. The algorithm manipulates users by constituting relevant topics to keep them attractive as per its management guidelines. Therefore, many school children in Nepal are addicted to the video sharing platform.
It is not that the problem exists due to a lack of legal tools. According to article 47 of the Electronic Transactions Act, 2007, If any person posts or displays any illegal material on electronic media, including computers and the Internet, contrary to existing laws, public morality, decent behavior, harmonious relationship between castes, tribes and communities, he will be punished by a fine. not exceeding Rs 100,000 or imprisonment not exceeding five years or both.
Despite having strong laws, there does not seem to be an effective translation of them on the ground. With the excessive use of it, many children and young people are victims of it.
The need for constructive regulation
That is why the delimitation of the use of this platform must be known by all users before entering it. Apparently, while most of the time is spent on such platforms, there is a potential risk that children in Nepal will spend less time in productive sectors.
School-age children and young people mostly possess the amygdala brain, emotional processing driven by self-gratification. That is why they actively make short videos that may even be against the social norms and codes of the society. So, to navigate them from it, a limitation on this platform along with strict supervision and monitoring is urgent.
Regulatory mechanisms should set restrictions on screening time, viewing time and wise use of time taking age factors into account. Regulation must be carried out constructively; otherwise, it affects a deeply entrenched social value system.
The youth and school children of Nepal should realize the disadvantages of using TikTok. Likewise, they should be educated to invest fruitful time in social discourse, socialization ecosystem, family recreation, outdoor playground, etc., which in the long run constitutes a better space for youth.
setting good example
John Grisham in his book, Theodore Boone: child lawyer, establishes the importance of the family and its influence on children. He says that if a child is raised in a family with harmonious relationships among family members and in a peaceful environment, he can learn good things in life, such as the importance of family relationships, good manners, knowledge, and integrity. education.
Therefore, the family plays a fundamental role in the personality development of children in Nepal as elsewhere. But due to the obsession with TikTok apps, kids today are more exposed before gaining a sense of right and wrong in society, which consequently threatens their social life.
The responsibility of parents is essential to set good examples for their children. Parents must learn to shape their children with appropriate rewards and punishments in the right way to motivate children in Nepal to participate in good things.
In a nutshell, TikTok as a stagnant platform where schoolchildren and youth waste time unreasonably is a threat to the entire society. So to address this, significant regulation of social and legal institutions is required before it creates more serious issues about the future of children in Nepal.
