The Influence of Tiktok Contents

In Children’s Cognitive Development

Submitted by:
Bulaon, Luis Angelo
Aquino – Chua, Ma. Michelle
Argillio, Nonie
Apuyan, Troy
Buquiran, Maria
Lasquety, Angelika
Fraga, Eloisa
Lood, Christine
Oneza, Myka
Tolibas, Adones
Tomas, Kayla

Submitted to the faculty of

In today’s generation children is well equipped with new gadgets smartphones, and apps for organizing
their everyday life the temptation of social media is apparent, especially for children. From the
comfort of their beds, children can interact with friends and acquaintances, express
their opinions, research a school project, express their creativity or read through posts from their
latest celebrity idol. According to Relano (2018), technology can be helpful to us but it should be
used in moderation. Children at home are exploring and developing new skills. The Internet is
the most widely used and fastest-adopted technology in human history. The Internet has
drastically transformed the way we search for information, consume media and entertainment,
and manage our social networks and relationships in just a few decades. With the introduction of
smartphones even more recently, Internet connection has become portable and widespread to the
point that the population of the developed world can be termed Internet-enabled (Perrin and
Jiang,2018). One of the most popular application that children use today is Tiktok.
TikTok is a social networking platform for short video creation, sharing, and discovery. People
use the app to express themselves through singing, dancing, comedy, and lip-syncing, and it also
allows them to produce films and share them with others. It features a wide range of short-form
user videos, ranging in length from 15 seconds to three minutes, in categories such as pranks,
stunts, tricks, jokes, dancing, and entertainment. In August of 2018, it became an app that has
most downloads and it reached 500 million active users worldwide. The app was established in
2017 by Bytedance, a Chinese multinational internet technology firm located in Beijing. It's a
social networking app that lets users make 15 to 60 second lip sync, comedy, acting, and talent
videos with the use of accessible background music.
In this paper, the researchers will seek to know how Tiktok contents influences the cognitive
development of a child, as well as its negative and positive impacts. Cognitive development
means how children think, explore and figure things out. It is the growth of information, skills,
problem-solving abilities, and attitudes that enable children to think about and comprehend the
world around them. Cognitive development includes brain development (Siegler, 2021).
The many obviously negative aspects of TikTok use are in itself important further research leads.
From a psychological perspective, we take a different path with the present review and try to
better understand why people use TikTok, who uses the platform, and also how people use
TikTok.
In the study, researchers found that the part of the brain that plays a role in reward cognition
“showed significant positive activation in response to the [personalized videos],” which means
your reward center is likely activated more as you watch videos curated for you by TikTok.
Personalized videos also activate a part of the brain that helps you focus more on them, as
compared to how you would more passively watch a generalized video.
Based on a research, the negative effect of TikTok app on the Cognitive of Children’s are:
TikTok Encourage Negative Comparison, Showcase Disordered Eating, Can be a Platform of
Bullying, Wastes time, Appeals to Short attention span, Spread Misinformation, Divides people,
Breeds “Cancel Culture”, Contains Inappropriate Content, Unequally Censors Creators and many
more.
Critique and Appreciation to Tiktok Contents

Anderson & Subrahmanyam (2017) stated that Children's media has long been suspected of
having both beneficial and harmful effects on their knowledge and cognitive abilities. The
majority of study on screen media is on television, although there is an increasing amount of
work on interactive screen media, such as computers, gaming consoles, and mobile screen
devices. Because babies and toddlers are usually unable to absorb media content, the influence of
media consumption on newborns under the age of two differs from that on older children. Early
exposure to screens has been linked to delayed language and cognitive development in children.
Children's ability to grasp screen media information increases as they get older, starting around
the age of two. As a result, instructional media may be used to teach information and cognitive
abilities successfully. A substantial body of research has demonstrated that instructional screen
media has a favorable influence on cognitive development.
Social Media platforms especially Tiktok can offer a wide variety of content. The highly
personalized TikTok algorithm that fuels the For You feed is what makes the app so addictive.
The videos you see might change over time based on your viewing preferences and even your
current state of mind. A child can be exposed into appropriate contents. Stade (2020) stated that
children's safety isn't just contingent on preventing strangers from seeing and talking to them.
There's also the fact that they're getting exposed to pornographic content at such a young age.
Furthermore, Tiktok opposes children's development of critical thinking, analysis and focus.
Some Tiktok contents does not follow the community guidelines, some of the contents shows
hate speech, violence, and other appropriate contents. Some of the challenges that has gone
trending contents is also not appropriate for young users, one example is the invisible challenge
where an individual will use the "Invisible filter" and will strip their clothing and dance. Not all
challenges are appropriate for teens and some contents can promote self-harm and eating
disorder. Simrin (2020) stated that while the app can be used to convey positive messages, it can
also be used to disseminate bullying. Some people use the app to make joke of other people's
videos, while others use it to mock others. It has a massive effect on everyone's mental health,
which can lead in life-threatening situations and decisions.
Brown (2021) states that time spent on these platforms can disrupt sleep and expose children to
bullying and unrealistic views of other people’s lives. We appreciate Tiktok as a source of
information, that information may not be appropriate for immature audiences. The contents may
include crime, sex, drugs and dangerous information which may take much of our time for eating
or sleeping that can possibly affect the mind.
Stade (2020) indicated that while Tiktok does not promote the publication of inappropriate
articles. TikTok is used by the youth as a personal account which values privacy that the parents
and/or the guardian may not have time to supervise their children. There is no regulation such as
censorship or allowing the viewing of mature contents at nighttime only. As a result, TikTok
may thorough its contents be a bad influence to people.
One example that the mentioned app can be promote violence is when the "Black Out Challenge"
came out, where a person choke themselves until passing out. Because of this trend, a ten-year-
old boy, Joshua Haileyesus and a 12-year-old girl Antonella died by doing the said challenge.
Antonella, had put a belt around her neck with the aim of staying without breathing as long as
possible, while capturing the moment with her mobile phone. Antonella’s five-year-old sister
who discovered her unconscious body on Wednesday evening. Her parents immediately took her
to the children’s hospital in Palermo, but she did not survive. The two kids died because of the
blackout challenge.

Entertainment television and computer games may have a detrimental influence on children's
learning to read. This negative effect is most likely related to the time displacement of
entertainment reading at a period when reading is still challenging. Furthermore, watching
violent entertainment media is linked to impulsive and aggressive conduct, which can lead to
issues at school. If effective game play teaches and trains certain cognitive skills, games played
on computers and other screen devices can increase such talents. Overall, depending on the age
of the kid and the type of information received, screen media has both beneficial and harmful
impacts on cognitive development (Keder, 2018).

On the other hand, TikTok is an excellent source of amusement. Individuals may use this
program to dance, make new acquaintances, and improve their creative abilities. It implies a
video-sharing community that is unfiltered, and unrestricted. One of Tiktok's most notable
features is that it has extended 'Creative Freedom' to ordinary people like you and me, which was
formerly reserved for celebrities alone. Actors, actresses, and comedians are not the only ones
that use TikTok. Various professions, such as physicians, engineers, and psychologists, use this
platform to share their expertise in a way that everyone can grasp. Contents made by
professionals is good for child’s cognitive ability since they are being exposed to information
they see in Tiktok.
First of all, Cyberwise (2020) mentioned that Tiktok is very much appreciated by kids because it
is very entertaining and at the same time it is very educational. Sharing short videos of dances,
sketches, lip-sync duets, for friends to like and follow one’s account.
Making TikToks is an art, even if it doesn't appear to be such at first glance. When creating
Tiktok dances, for example, you must select from a variety of filter settings, select appropriate
music, and come up with unique dance techniques. When creating TikTok comedy skits, you'll
need to write a screenplay and come up with creative methods to perform it out. So there's a
method to the chaos, which may be useful to children's creativity and self-expression. According
to Budsies (2017), technology can be an effective vehicle for child creativity.
If curated the contents properly, a child can be exposed to educational learning that can help
them engage their critical thinking abilities and assist them to find what their favorite academic
subject is. There's also a lot of educational content, which TikTok promotes through its
#LearnOnTikTok campaign.
Solutions and Suggestions on Tiktok Contents

Solutions:
- Tiktok should make a dedicated Tiktok app for children that has educational contents and
appropriate entertainments that caters the child needs.
- Tiktok should invest in creating more community guidelines.
- Tiktok should be more active on taking down inappropriate contents.

Suggestion:
- Parents should have a full access to their child’s Tiktok accounts to monitor what kind of
content they are watching.
- Parents should curate the FYP (For You Page) contents of their children’s account so that
the parents know what kind of contents their children is watching.
- Using of gadgets should be limited especially to those children 1-5 years old.
- A person that would promotes sexual, abusive, self-harm, hate speech, and the likes
should be banned from using Tiktok.
A Real-Life Personal Experience

It is clear that in our time now that the generation of young people is very chronic in the use of
gadgets due to the respective proliferation of various mobile games. It’s sad to think that the
traditional games during of my childhood days are gone. Perhaps, I can say that this is just one of
the disadvantages of the majority caused by the pandemic since young people cannot go out and
have no other recreation.

As I am now a parent of 2 children, I can say that we still have the "Huling Halakhak" in a
Tagalog saying. We, parents still have an obligation and must preach what our children should
do no matter what aspect is that. The use of TikTok is just one of example. Just as how I am
raising my 2 kids, I always reminded and made them aware of right and wrong things. It is also
possible to just give them a limited amount of time so that they can somehow have fun but
should not lead to addiction.

Today, I am 8 years in motherhood. Based on my own experience I can say, I believe and
already proven that you cannot control the people or anything around us. Instead of, your
children should always be reminded in different ways. Discipline is a key and very helpful for
them to grow well. Besides it is also for their benefit.

Remember, it is also right to always talk to our children properly and don’t forget to explain
everything in real life as calmly as possible because their thinking is still innocent. May we never
tire to guide our children. The reminders we constantly give and relentlessly say as we are their
parents are proof of our pure love for them.
References:

Hussaini. A.R. (n.d). Retrieved from https://techspite.com/positive-and-negative-effects-of-

Anderson, D.R. & Subrahmanyam, K. (2017). Digital Screen Media and Cognitive
Development. Pediatrics

Keder, R. (2018, Febuary 6). Retrieved from https://www.connecticutchildrens.org/media-

Simrin, S. (2020, August 6). How TikTok is Affecting Youth: Positive and Negative Effects.
Retrieved from Linens N Love: https://medium.com/linens-n-love/how-tik-tok-is-
affecting-youth-the-positive-and-negative-effects-7381b17ac43a
Stade, L. (2020, June 14). Tiktok and your Child's Brain. Retrieved from Linda Stade Education:
https://linastade.com/tiktok-impact-childs-brain/

Technology and How to Develop Creativity in Kids in the 21st Century. (2017, January 3).
Retrieved from https://www.budsies.com/blog/education/technology/

Cyberwise. (2020, September 10). Retrieved from https://www.cyberwise.org/post/8-pros-and-

Pew Research Center . Internet/broadband fact sheet. Pew Research Center, February 5, 2018.

Perrin A, Jiang J. About a quarter of US adults say they are ‘almost constantly’ online. Pew
Research Center, March 14, 2018. [Google Scholar].

Anderson M, Jiang J. Teens, social media & technology 2018. Pew Research Center, May 31,
2018. [Google Scholar]

Breen, K. (2021). The 'Choking Game' is now the 'Blackout Challenge' on TikTok, and a boy has
died
Horowitz-Kraus T, Hutton JS (2018) Brain connectivity in children is increased by the time they
spend reading books and decreased by the length of exposure to screen-based media.
Reitz, C. (2021) Theres a Scientific reason you can’t stop watching TikToks
Small, G. (2020) Brain health consequences of digital technology use
Radesky JS, Christakis (2016) Increased Screen Time: Implications for Early Childhood
Development and Behavior.