Kanye Asks TikTok to Consider Christian App That Protects Children

Kanye Asks TikTok to Consider Christian App That Protects Children

By Cooper Dowd, Staff Writer

The Grammy award-winning artist Kanye West called out the social media app TikTok on Twitter, claiming he does not approve of the content his children are seeing.

West, a controversially outspoken Christian, also advocated for a Christian version of the app to be made in collaboration with TikTok that offers more appropriate content for children.

“A vision just came to me… Jesus Tok,” West said in a Tweet. “I was watching TikTok with my daughter and as a Christian father I was disturbed by a lot of the content but I completely loved the technology.”

In 2017, Tik Tok made its debut under the company ByteDance. The app quickly became the most popular video-sharing app among social media users, with over 500 million users.

Although West is pushing for the censoring of inappropriate content on the app, he recognizes and loves the technology TikTok offers as a social media platform.

“We pray we can collaborate with TikTok to make a Christian monitored version that feels safe for young children and the world, in Jesus name, amen,” West continued in his Tweet.

TikTok is not unaware of the risk that content on its platform poses to younger audiences. After being named on the National Center for Sexual Exploitation’s annual Dirty Dozen List, TikTok announced new modes available to parents in the U.S. and U.K. to help protect children.

MOVIEGUIDE® reported on TikTok’s installation of parental controls:

The new feature, called Family Pairing, will allow a parent to link their account to their child’s so they can monitor the content they see.

It’s called restricted mode. When parents turn the feature on, they can “block content ‘that may not be appropriate for all audiences,’” according to Variety.

A TikTok representative elaborated on the new feature, saying, “It essentially enables you to limit videos that you might find uncomfortable or unsuitable for yourself or your kids.”

The Family Pairing feature will also allow parents to set a screen time limit for how long their child can spend on the app each day.

Finally, the feature lets parents restrict who can send their child direct messages on the app. It even gives them the option to turn off direct messaging completely if the user is 16 or younger.

TikTok has yet to respond to West’s Tweet.

Movieguide® encourages media wisdom and discernment and believes these are especially important for younger audiences. The parental controls are an excellent first step in protecting children but are far from perfect. Hopefully, more celebrities speaking out on the matter will encourage a continued push for the safety of children using social media apps like TikTok.