(Molly Bruns, Headline USA) A recently released poll revealed that 82% percent of American parents are concerned about the detrimental impact the internet will have on their children.
According to Newsbusters, child advocacy nonprofit Parents Defending Education discovered that “over two-thirds of parents (68%) are not comfortable allowing their kid to use TikTok without adult supervision, including 73% of parents aged 18-34.”
The group also found that 37% of parents—57% of Republicans and 42% of independents—agreed with the statement that “China is using TikTok to spy on or manipulate Americans, especially kids, and the U.S. Government should step in and ban TikTok because it is a threat to national security.”
Only 17% of Americans in any party believed that TikTok was “not collecting any information that puts Americans at risk and is not something we should worry about.”
Snapchat was the least trusted app, with at least 74% of parents saying they were “not that comfortable” or “not comfortable at all” with their children using the app “without adult supervision.”
TikTok was a close second at 68%, Twitter came third at 66%, and Facebook and Instagram each scored 63% of parents uncomfortable with their kids using the platform without direct supervision.
YouTube was the only app that over 35% of parents said they were comfortable allowing their children to use without supervision.
Parents Defending Education President and Founder put the growing concerns of parents surrounding Big Tech into words:
“From intrusive surveys in the classroom to data security to social media platforms, families are deeply worried about Big Tech’s influence both inside and outside school,” she said.
“Parents desire more knowledge about—and control over—what their children have access to, and want policy changes that will empower them to keep them safe.”
Several of these concerns appear to be startlingly valid, especially as more is revealed about the platforms.
Through TikTok, China can allegedly access American user data that parent company ByteDance, which is based in China, has cited video and audio clips in internal meetings.
There was a recent admission from Eugene Zarashaw, a Facebook engineering director, who said that he does not know where Facebook data is stored and is under the impression that no “single person exists who could answer that question.”
