As a part of the One love community, I am deeply concerned about the safety of our underage youth on TikTok. This increasingly popular platform has unfortunately become a nest for predators exploiting children, some even making money off of them. Our biggest concern is that the platform fails to protect those aged below 18, hence allowing the prevalence of harmful activities such as cyberbullying, which oftentimes result in emotional distress, self-harm, or worse outcomes among our young ones. Many people not only children have taken their lives due to certain things that happen on this app and it is completely unacceptable. If you do not look a certain way, if you do not fit the societal expectations of how you should look and act can be extremely detrimental and only fuels the cyber bullying and online hate. It also contributes to a lot of mental health issues in our young people.

According to a study by the Cyberbullying Research Center, about 34% of the kids have experienced cyberbullying in their lifetime, and TikTok, with its large youth user base, likely contributes to these numbers. This horrifying trend has to stop, and the first step is establishing age restrictions and verification processes.

We propose that TikTok take immediate action to restrict users under the age of 16 from the platform and prevent anyone under 18 from accessing or participating in live streams without ID verification. This ensures that our children are kept safe from the potential harms of social media, helping to maintain their innocence and safeguard their mental health.

Our call is for TikTok, and potentially other social media platforms, to create a safer online environment for our young people, by acknowledging this serious issue and implementing stronger measures of control. Please sign this petition to preserve the safety and wellbeing of humanity.  WE STAND TOGETHER! #OneLoveCommunity