Turning Point USA

Tuesday, Brendan Carr, an FCC Commissioner, publicly shared his letter to the CEO’s of Apple and Google, calling for the removal of TikTok from their app stores.

Carr wrote in his post, “[TikTok] harvests swaths of sensitive data that new reports show are being accessed in Beijing.”

The letter addresses the huge national security threat posed by the social media giant, stating the following:

“It is clear that TikTok poses an unacceptable national security risk due to its extensive data harvesting being combined with Beijing’s apparently unchecked access to sensitive data . . .

At its core, TikTok functions as a sophisticated surveillance tool that harvests extensive amounts of personal and sensitive data.”

Carr, of course, is not the first person to warn against the use of TikTok and the damaging affects it would have; Former President Donald Trump first voiced concern back in 2020. Many people at the time were unconcerned with the President’s warning, probably due to the entertainment the app provided during the Covid-19 lockdowns.

According to CNBC, TikTok reportedly has approximately 100 million users within the U.S. alone. Stistica data from 2022 shows that nearly 18% of users on the platform are ages 12-17, and 2.5% are 11 years old or younger.

Setting aside the fact that big tech giants Apple and Google have chosen to leave their user’s information vulnerable to the Chinese government, how have parents allowed children on this platform?

Apart from the national security threat that TikTok poses, social media in general can be irreversibly harmful to a child’s mental development. Negative impacts include but are not limited to sleep deprivation, lower self-esteem, screen dependency or a lack of thoughtful independence, decreased physical activity and more, according to Family Education.

The takeaway from all of this is: be mindful of the data and personal information tech platforms are collecting from you, and it’s probably a good time to take young kids off social media.