Name: Ezayffa Hizfar Halida (20180810217)

Bayu Silvi Novita Sadewo (20180810222)

Class: E 2018
Tik Tok Virus in Indonesia
Recently, in 2018 there was a kid named Prabowo Mondardo or Bowo Alpenliebe who
suddenly became popular through an app called Tik Tok. Tik Tok is a social media application to
make and share creative videos along 15 seconds that created by Bytedanc Inc, a giant internet
company from China. This-13 years old-boy became a Tik Tok celebrity because his posts in Tik
Tok that could get a fantastic number of ‘likes’. He had more than 700 thousand of fans in this
application. His appearance in social media became controversial, because some people thought
that his posts in Tik Tok was not suitable for his age. Most of his videos are about his dancing
through some adult’s song that actually had a stamp of parental advisory (Liputan 6, 2018). It was
a concern because Bowo was not the only young user who use this app. There are more than 10
million active users of Tik Tok with most of them are underage (Tekno kompas, 2018). We think
Tik Tok supervisions were too flexible and the age requirements is not suit enough.
Tik Tok policy is not strict enough, that could endanger some users. Some people made
inappropriate videos that could be disturbing even harmful. It founded there were porn, sexual
assaults and religion ashamed freely spread in Tik Tok, like what had stated by Semuel
Pangerapan, the General Director of Application Informatics Kominfo (Communication and
Informatics governments). This is dangerous because as it already said before, most of the users
of Tik Tok are underage (Kompas, 2018). Kids would learn and follow everything they see. If the
contents they saw is bad, it could influence their character, even destruct their minds. It was
dangerous too, because many users who love to make videos sometimes use exaggerate
movements that might endanger themselves. When a user got more likes than before, they will be
excited and try to make a way more unique video. This could be harmful when they took
uniqueness as something extremes (Warta Ekonomi, 2018). These conditions in Tik Tok is
potential to bring up cyber bullying too. The dangerous is not only come from our behaviour itself
but could be from people’s judgement too. That is why Tik Tok should not be used by kids due to
the harms.
Tik Tok users age requirement is not acceptable. The age minimum for Tik Tok user is 13
years old which considered as underage in Indonesia. This is one of the biggest concerns according
to Indonesian netter. Actually, in 3rd July of 2018, Tik Tok had already banned in Indonesia. Tik
Tok supervisors at first promised to change the minimum age of the Tik Tok user from 12 years
old become 16 years old. But when this application opened again for Indonesia, it turned out the
minimum user’s age became 13 years old. Some people speculated that this is because many of
the users of Tik Tok is under 16 years old, so if the minimum age become 16 years old, Tik Tok
would lose a huge number of users (Teknologi Bisnis, 2018). This speculation might be true, but
if we care about our next generation, we cannot accept this reason. Other than bad contents that
might influence the kids, there is another reason why Tik Tok is dangerous for kids. This app
causes the kids to be easily met by some strangers. We should be concerned about this, because
we never know what kind of strangers that our kids could meet. An expert said Tik Tok could be
a place for the pedophile predators and kid’s exploitation. This app is too ‘wild’ for the kids to
‘swim’ into it, when we know that many parents have this concern that they do not know what
their kids doing in the internet. A professional psychologist for kids and teenagers named Ratih
Zulhaqqi, said that the concern that she saw from Tik Tok application is the kids could
communicate with strangers easily because there are group chats that the member’s age range is
too wide (Detik, 2018). Those points represent reasons why Tik Tok still lack in their age
requirements.
Even though there are many objections from people about Tik Tok app, there some people
in the other side too. These people thought that Tik Tok actually is a positive app that good for
kid’s development. They said, Tik Tok pushes the kids to be more productive and creative. The
kids can produce and upload their own-made videos every day. The kids will be more creative too,
because they should think what kind of video that can get many likers (Kompasiana, 2018). But
these defences are not strong enough. Without watching and creating videos in Tik Tok, there are
many ways for kids to be productive and creative. There are many applications to make videos
like these that they can keep it for themselves. They can show it only to their family and friends.
This way is way more secure for the kids. Beside that, the school and the family should be the one
who provide the access and support for the kid’s creativity.
Another defence’s reason for this matter is because Tik Tok could improve the kid’s editing
skill. The kids would not feel new again with editing tasks because they already have skill for it.
They become familiar with the editing technology and maybe it helps them in the future
(Kompasiana, 2018). It is right that improving the kid’s editing skill is nice, but improving the
skill through Tik Tok is too much. There are many other applications that way more complicated
and interesting that kids can try without share it to strangers in the internet. They do not have to
communicating with strangers if the aim is to improve the editing skill.

All in all, kids should not enjoy and ‘surf in’ Tik Tok or other social media before their age
is considered enough as in Indonesia is 17 years old. This app has age-requirement-range too wide,
so the kids can play it and meet other strangers with variant ages easily. Sometimes the contents
of the videos that shared is inappropriate for kids to see, so this thing could be harmful. Though,
there are some positive effects that we may see, there are way more bad effects. Even not every
kid can be influenced, we cannot gamble with our next generation’s future. What would you feel
if your kids wildly expose themselves to strangers online and being one-eyed judged by the people
online? We think that internet is important but as for any kind social medias should be used by
adults only (over 17 years old), because as we see there are some not suitable things for kids to see
in there. Tik Tok supervisors should correct their regulations again and the age requirement.
 References
Rosidha, Eka Laili. (June 29, 2018). Fakta Bowo Alpenliebe, Artis Tik Tok yang Dikerubuti
Remaja Masa Kini. Retrieved from www.liputan6.com

(July 3, 2018). Kenapa aplikasi Tik Tok diblokir pemerintah?. Retrieved from www.bbc.com

Bohang, Fatimah Kartini. (July 5, 2018). Tik Tok Punya 10 Juta Pengguna Aktif di Indonesia.
Retrieved from tekno.kompas.com

Bohang, Fatimah Kartini. (July 3, 2018). Tik Tok Diblokir di Indonesia karena Dinilai Negatif
untuk Anak. Retrieved from tekno.kompas.com

Aprilia, Feny. (July 18, 2018). Dampak Negatif dan Positif dari Fenomena Aplikasi "Tik Tok"
bagi Remaja. Retrieved from www.kompasiana.com

Rahayu, Ratih. (July, 5, 2018). Aplikasi Tik Tok dan 5 Bahaya yang Mengancam. Retrieved
from www.wartaekonomi.co.id

Utami, Dhiany Nadya. (July 11, 2018). Batas Usia Tik Tok Naik Menjadi 13 Tahun. Retrieved
from teknologi.bisnis.com

Putri, Vigina Maulita. (July 4, 2018). Dampak Penggunaan Tik Tok Bagi Anak dan Remaja.
Retrieved from inet.detik.com
Review by Ms. Arifah